A few updates after having seen the response to this video: 1. From the feedback I've gotten, Pokemon Unite is one of the less malicious Free-to-Play games in this genre. I still stand by the fact that it employs manipulative strategies to earn more from players, but in hindsight there were a few things I could have done to save me spending quite as much as I did. That said, I don't want this to take away from the key message of the video, which still stands and is still incredibly important. 2. Most of the shots in the video and screen recordings were sourced by my editor on my editors account, and so are more to demonstrate the points being made, as opposed to being representative of my own gameplay. 3. I've been informed that it is currently possible to upgrade an item to level 30 without paying real money in Pokemon Unite - this hasn't always been the case and isn't made clear to the player - it seems to be a limited time thing - but nonetheless an oversight on my part! 4. I am completely happy to admit that I am far from the best Pokemon Unite player. That said, while it is true that people with more skill can certainly get away with paying less, for the vast majority of the player base, paying is still the key legitimate way to make progress.

You would NEVER expect a channel this big to go this HARD and effectively side with the consumer on such a personal level. You are very genuine. Thank you for what you do!

It's not just mobile games - so many apps have embraced this business model. From dating apps to language learning apps - it's the same techniques over and over again. They don't set out to deliver what the app promises - be that teaching you Japanese to finding a partner - they just want you to pay.

Normally when a game bombards me/spams me with in app purchases, I just uninstall the game.

Me with no money : YOUR POWER IS USELESS AGAINST ME FOOL

Whoa as a kid I honestly thought those energy bar things that run out when you play, is to make sure no kid can spend too much time on the game and go outside to socialize 💀

As a Pokemon Unite player I agree that the monetization is some of the worst things about the game, but the game is not pay to win, it's pray to win. As in pray that the trolls, afk and clueless players are on the enemy team instead of your team XD

"760 dollars just for max enhance!?" People who pay 1000 dollars just for a PNG waifu: "that's cheap!"

bro just removed his chance of any game companies wanting him to sponsor their game

I already knew this, but when I was a child I was playing a game on my fathers mobile, I saw all the offers in the shop and all the great rewards, and i realized that my dad probably has money on his phone, so I bought 2 of the offers. When my dad came back home, he wasn't mad, instead he taught me about what this video is teaching. I've never spent money on any in-game purchases since.

This is why I’ve gone back to play ‘retro’ games and avoid online gaming as much as I can. If I want to play games on my phone, I use emulators and just play classic games I loved growing up.

This makes a whole lot of sense. Although for Pokémon Unite I was able to climb to the highest rank in the game within just a month of playing. I'm not entirely sure if it was just luck or the bad matchmaking in the game that helped me but I never felt the urge to make any purchases in this game.

Remember that crawling machine that we always wanted to get a plushie and then we realize it's always been rigged

I'm guessing Arun isn't sponsored by Raid Shadowlegends.

I miss when you could just buy a game, enjoy a good story, and that was it

Someone tell this man about gacha games

that is why i only play chess

This moment, when you don't play the game, but the game plays you.

I played Unite on my Switch when it was first released. I never spend any real money, I ground out everything and leveled up everything. There is an amount of strategy involved in knowing each Pokémon's skills and abilities. Like I said, I never spent a single cent on the game, and I would still destroy people who clearly spent money on Pokémon and extra tidbits. This was of course when the game came out, so I don't know how much it has changed since then.

This entire video can be summed up with these two quotes: "Pokemon Unite is pay to win." and "No matter how much money I spent, I kept losing." Sounds contradictory if you ask me ;) (Perhaps the real issue which has not been considered is.... is it possible that you are simply bad at the game?)

There’s a mobile game I play, where there always seems to be some kind of special offer. There’s a banner that says *16 HOURS LEFT!* , the next day it says something like *18 HOURS LEFT!*

Great video! But, as a Pokemon United player who reached Master Rank without spending any money at all, I have to say that in PU game knowledge and skills are far more important than the money you spend. Look at Spreagels reaction to this, he points out what is actually correct about Pokemon Unite's costs.

Excellent video, Arun. It's scary stuff, thank you for highlighting it so well!

Man, this is an awesomely detailed explanation of how FTP mobile games work. Alot of what you say clicked heavily with me when I've fallen pray of these practices. Great vid, thank you.

Amazing, did not expect to see a video like this on the channel. Great work

There are definitely mobile games out there that are p2w, but Pokémon Unite isn't one of them. Certainly you can spend money to get new Pokémon, but you can also farm the coins to aquire them as a f2p. Most people spend money on the cosmetics which has no bearing on the stats of the Pokémon. Buying new Pokémon or those cosmetics also have no impact on the gameplay. That is entirely skill-based and tries strongly on your team (if were all working together, etc). I'm F2P and if I do spend money, it's just gonna be for the Unite Membership, some cosmetics and/or some Pokémon... and that's if I choose to. Even if I don't choose to, I don't feel like I'm behind other players (unlike other mobile games) and it's nice.

ok this is genuinely just a skill issue king, you dont need to spend a penny to do well, just know how to play properly edit: it's really easy to figure out through watching good players play and trying to emulate their plays in your own matches

This is one of the best videos I've seen thanks for the wisdom shared I'm sure a lot of people will find this video super helpful !

People don't even understand, that by Arun JUST sharing that snippet of the workshop on the "first-spend" is such a flex. The info that is being shared here is a literal 'life-easter-egg' .

I’ve been playing Pokémon Unite since it came out last year, I’ve spent the entire time as a free to play player. It’s just a matter of knowing what you need to do to not have the urge to spend any money. (for me it’s not having any lol)

I think unite is one of the worst examples for showing this problem. If one informs themself sufficiently, you can quickly find out that spending money does almost nothing for your wins lol. And you can get everything non-cosmetic by just playing the game. There are 1000s of games that are way better examples that rly are p2w to their core..

Thanks for yet once going down the rabbit hole for all of us! Great overview and analysis! 🙏

And am also a big fan of you as your information is very valuable. I prefer your videos instead of a tech channel, honestly speaking. Your videos are very resourceful and I got to know many things that are very important for you

we originally thought the amount you'd need to spend to "max out a character" in diablo immortal was $130,000 - BUT if you actually max out one of the legendary gems, it opens up five extra (previously invisible) slots - meaning it costs at least 6x as much as we thought.

I've played Pokemon Unite for a long time and used to win most of my matches. Never felt the need for buying anything, even when my items weren't fulled out, it wasn't that hard to win.

It’s not a scam if it satisfies you.

Even if the game is free or expensive it still has expensive add ons

I was literally hooked to marvel contest of champions for 7 years and honestly it cost me thousandsb and stressed me out so much. Many thanks for doing a video like this!

I'm honestly the ULTIMATE anti-consumer for these games lmao. I've played a few of these types of games, never paid and always end up putting the game down when i run out of stamina or game coins and it needs to recharge. To the point that I sometimes even forget to open the game to the reward bonus. I am completely unable to form a habit with these games at all, because it feels more like a hassle to just get the game open and thus I become somewhat resistant and end up dropping the game out of boredom or play real games on my switch or pc.

Pokémon Unite wasn’t that bad. I didn’t spend a single cent and still won fairly many games with venesaur

I keep coming back daily to your channel to get thrilled with your explanation. For free though 😂

thank you for doing this! my daughter plays these kind of games and she always wants her allowance in some different game currency. and she's always like "I only have 6 minutes left to get this thing I've always wanted!" I'm going to have her watch this video hopefully it will open her eyes a bit. I always tell her it's a scam but she just doesn't get it.

It would have been hilarious if in the middle of this video, "But first, thanks to this videos sponsor, RAID Shadow Legends!" 🤣

Very good job enlightening us about these games. I will say that some are more skill based than others, and that the ones I play seem to be more tame (F1 Clash, Genshin Impact etc) and can be played free to play quite easily. Still a great video

In these games, I try and think about ways to win with the least amount of money. Then it hit me, the only way to win is not to play.

I work as an artist in one of the mobile gaming giants and all the strategies to pull out cash from players are really dirty sometimes! A lot to left for you to dig...

You made a good point, but am not so sure about Pokémon unite. I am f2p and maxed out all the items to 20. Aeos gems only buy skins. You simply lost due to skill cap. It is not about mashing buttons. There are championships and it’s very competitive. Other than that keep up the good work!

Bro Spitting Facts

Tip: DO NOT SPAM THE BASIC ATTACK ESPECIALLY WITH CHARIZARD JUST HOLD

As someone who foolishly spent money in genshin impact, I felt this on a spiritual level.

I'm glad people are pointing out the Pokemon Unite part. If this was actually one year ago, then you could see the argument like MoistCritikal's video, but Pokemon Unite has actually improved since then. Now they have free lvl 30 item enchancers you can get by just playing the game so your not behind on item levels. The only "predatory" thing in the game is arguably the skin and gacha mechanic with emblems. Skins are just skins and they dont affect stats. Emblems you can't just outright buy them. You have to earn them by consistently playing the game and doing good in those games. TLDR Pokemon Unite was not a good example for being Pay to win.

I would not personally call this a scam. It’s a kind of tricky marketing strategy that forces players or users to purchase things they don’t need. And in some mobile games the game always gets harder when you don’t purchase in game items and when you buy them the other levels get even harder

I am a counselor with a rehabilitation centre and I really love the way you've correlated this topic with drug addiction. Kudos for the great work.

Pokemon Unite: I've only spent money in consideration for the skins/holowears, not so much in upgrading item, earning tickets/coins, for someone who has been playing since its release, they have been more than enough. I agree though that the game seems to be overwhelming for those just starting one, you would have the feeling of being left behind.

I actually did my bachelor thesis on this exact same subject (dark patterns in gaming) and I can tell this is spot on! I was baffled by the lengths developers will go to, to make users spend more and more money.

I come from a generation where no one has even heard of microtransactions. We were shocked by the $2.50 horse armor in Oblivion. And for today's young generation, microtransactions are normal. It's really terrifying.

No money required to play. You just have the money to spend without the patience of learning how to play.

Let me make this clear, It isn’t hard to get item enhancers, in fact they kind of chuck em at you and super item enhancers bring your items instantly to level 30(btw, you get those for free just by playing). I’ve spent 0$ on this game and have every item at level 30, so there is NO NEED TO BUY ANYTHING. Plus, items are useful but they won’t actually completely change your chances of winning. Your probably just bad at the game (which is fine)

What I've noticed is once you identify the manipulative techniques being used you start to see them everywhere not just in gaming.

I beat online levels with pikachu, not like charizard. And the game throws so many item enhancers at you, I don't even know what to do with them.

As online gamer since 2000, i understand this trap from the beginning in game market, thats why i never spend single penny for buying item, i play games because i want to enjoy my free time, and not being competitive (i already need to be competitive in real life). if f2p getting harder levelling, you just switch to other game. The game eventually will end when there is no whales left (except for skill oriented games like CS), and dev will make another version. Thx for Arun, who spend his valuable time to explain this better than anyone else.

I’ve worked 6 yrs in the online gambling industry. All the concepts discussed were disco and first used in online gambling. Sign up bonuses to break the barrier is essential to the acquisition strategy. Push towards slots with high volatility (small wins but much more often) gets you hooked on the reward stimulation and perception that the big win (like levelling up quick but the level you want to be is so far and impossible) that only whales really get. The concept of in-game currency comes from buying tickets for tournaments in the casino. This was developed in the 90s. I think I made my point in how the mobile gaming system is literally and purposefully designed based on the online gambling industry. The difference I think is most important is that online gambling has regulations in place. There are companies that monitor and reign in industry. Even worse, the mobile gaming industry is aimed at children and is much more sinister in fostering addiction than online gambling could ever be.

This is well done! I have been thinking about all of this and you did a great job explaining the trap of “free to play” games. I mostly play CODM but will never pay $100 for an untangle item that has no value. Some people pay $200-$300 for the mythical weapons! That’s insane!!! The game doesn’t hold you back from competing so that’s good.

Honestly I’ve been playing unite since it’s release haven’t spent a cent and I haven’t faced any of the problems you said tbh I had no trouble grinding and upgrading and i have hit high ranks if you put in a little more time you never need to pay

really good video every thing works like this these days. In South Africa we have passes you have to carry around to the shops to get the discounted items. the pass is fee or now unless you value wallet space.

that's how a tech channel should be,not just mobiles and laptops

This video hits me SO hard. Unfortunately, I have an addictive personality and I'm extremely impatient and simply cannot abide grinding for something unless there is immediate rewards. What I'm saying is, I need to be the strongest player, but I don't have the patience to grind my way to the top. About 10 years ago, I fell into an MMO (I honestly can't remember the name). The first "mission" (tutorial) gave me a taste of what was to come and the second mission made it seem like I should be able to take down these monsters easily! In the 3rd mission, I got my ass kicked and went back to the character page with my tail betwixt my legs. I tried everything I could to get strong enough without money but, in the long run, I knew my toon would be a weakling without spending a little money.. At that time, I had just opened a company that had an incredibly successful launch and, if projections were correct, I expected a very strong trend for several months. In other words, I had (what seemed to me to be) a ridiculous amount of disposable income! I decided I was going to pay to win! I bought the best armor and the highest ranking spells (I was a sorcerer). I then tried a daily group mission and realized there were toons stronger than I was! Back to the store! I purchased multiple pieces of armor so I could meld them and get a higher level armor. I purchased multiple spells and combined them to make stronger spells. With my new "disposable" income, I became one of the top 5 players on my server within just a month of playing. I was the guy everyone wanted on their team. I was the guy people begged to join the server-wide attack on the incredibly high ranking beastie. Everyone on my server knew who I was and I was loving it! Any time I found my toon not up to a task, I headed back to the store to buy whatever I could to increase my stats. After about 2 months, Jackie (the person I had hired as the bookkeeper for the company) approached me. It seems she was confused about numerous charges, to some company that didn't match any of our suppliers. I told her "Yeah, I know it's stupid but I've been playing this game and I've spent a little money on it. Just take it out of my next couple of checks". When she told me I wouldn't be getting a paycheck for the next 4 months, that got my attention. Jackie showed me list of charges ranging from $10 to $100. I thought I had spent around 4 or 5 thousand dollars but, in light of my new income, I wasn't worried about it. Jackie literally laughed in my face when she heard me say $5k. She then handed me a sheet of paper of charges, filling the entire page. I focused on the bold number circled in red at the bottom right of the sheet and was dumbfounded by the number printed there. $12,470! Yes. I spent $12,000 on a stupid fucking online game in about 2 months! Lemme say that again. I FUCKING SPENT TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS ON AN ONLINE GAME...IN TWO MONTHS! Yes. I know. I'm an idiot. I'm not an idiot because I spent the money. I'm an idiot because I didn't see the flaw in the "pay to win" mentality until I had already lost my mind. Unless I had literally a limitless fortune, there would always be someone willing to spend more money to be better than me. It's crazy how quickly $10-$100 charges will accrue! So, realizing my addiction had blown past the "unmanageable" phase and was firmly in the "idiots do this" realm, I contacted a friend from that game and literally gave them my character and walked away from that game, and those like it, forever. Be careful about the "store" page of these games! It's way easy to justify one payment, but after you've paid once, you feel obliged to do it again because you're already invested. Then when you find something you can't do because you're one level short, it's way too easy to simply pay for that upgrade. Now that you've paid for that upgrade, it doesn't make sense to stop now or you've wasted all that money! So you buy more. And more. And more. I know many people can see through the scam and just play the game without paying for anything, but those games wouldn't exist if there wasn't plenty of people willing to spend their hard earned money on intangible, digital merchandise. One purchase is all it takes to start the cycle. If you're able to resist, great! For those with addictive personalities, like myself, it's probably best to stay away from these kinds of games.

Mrwhosetheboss it is about skill if you have skill you can overcome all disadvantages

This is totally legid. I also went down this road and found it the hard way. Thanks for this great content

This is why I mostly play single player games nowadays and avoid anything free to play. I usually have enough self-restraint to avoid buying microtransactions, but they are so annoying that I'd rather buy a full-priced game than have to deal with F2P microtransactions and the systems that come with it. I also hate when games try to get you to play daily whether it's through timers/energy or daily rewards/missions. The "habit" part was what burned me out on MMOs since it ended up feeling more like work than fun to log into the game every day and play the bare minimum just to not fall behind on progression.

The issue is, taking Diablo Immortal as an example, when the game was launched, it received horrendous feedback due to their monetization and was slammed on Metacritic with the lowest user score ever for a game. Afterwhich tons of media coverage and KZfaqrs taking about this and publications and forums were flooded with this topic. Fast forward to 2 months ago, Diablo Immortal still made 97million in August. The moral of the story is, players know what they are getting into and they still knowingly play the game. Due to this, the industry isn't going to change anytime soon I am afraid.

I don't spend money on games because I don't have them, I am broke.

I had a game I spent a thousand dollars a month on, which is half of what I make in a month. It was basically an addiction. I'd say I'm only going to spend 5 dollars or maybe even 50 dollars, then I end up spending 100 or 200. I got out of that and now I refuse to touch a free mobile game ever again.

I think the points made are real and important, but the Unite example isn't the best one. Unite is very F2P friendly, handing out a lot of things for new playes to start at a similar item level to other players. Another game you could have covered that would have made more sense imo is Genshin Impact. A lot of the points made can easily be translated to Genshin, and a lot more people spend a lot more money in it. Overall, great video topic, it's important that people know that most free games are designed to make you spend. Edit : to rephrase a little more, the point of this comment was to say that Genshin Impact is a better and more pertinent example as to how a game makes you spend since it has made an insane amount of money for a free game.

Speaking as indie dev and one who moderately get into those kind of games, unfortunately these types of games *flourish* on the mobile game market, and they flourish HARD. Based on my findings from mobile gamer buddies, many mobile players are dissuaded by the idea of paying $30 for a premium single player game with content you expect from PC/console games, but they willing to spend more than $70 to for an uncertain gacha item (and some games would practically cost thousands of dollars for pity system). Free to play players would pay in time of timely rewards and grind. Mobile game market sucks for design ideology expected from PC/console game space and the old timey shenanigans, and unfortunately market crash for it is not in sight.

This is very true I honestly don’t pay for any of this kinda stuff but, making you want to or you have spend so much time in the game and gives little back I realized this in the new assassin’s creed games with micro transactions and it frustrated me in the Game instead of enjoying the game

I am a developer, please explain alternative ways they should use to make money! remember the game was built with a team of people. they also need cash for their time. I do understand whatever you are saying though. just make sure you understand that it takes time to build games

This is one of the reasons I mostly stopped playing video games anymore. Instead, of making a fun enjoyable game, video games are now used as money making machines. Kids are specially vulnerable to this. This video needs to spread further to bring awareness, so eventually a law might be passed to prevent video game develops from exploiting an addiction.

I have poured a total of 700 hours during lockdown into such mobile games and i have finally left playing. This video is absolutely on point on why players spend so much money. It's the time and love they put in the game and when they land in a situation where they have to spend money, they do it. Lockdown was indeed a dark time in my life and i can proudly say I left these games for the good. All I want to say is you should keep yourselves at a distance from mobile games.

I'm planning to develop a game, but with no ads, and purchases, because it's just pointless having purchases, and ads always interrupt, especially the horrible made games. I have always being trolled for a long time, and doing this method of you purchase, feel good, feel bad, and repeat is just a terrible trick...😞

There should be international laws regarding this BS.

Honestly, Pokemon Unite is one of the more consumer friendly mobile games compared to most mobile games, considering you can obtain everything that is important for gameplay without spending anything, just by playing regularly for a few weeks. You can get a few max boosts easily but any more will cost you. Teamwork is the most important thing in the game, if you try to go alone without your team like Arun did in this video you will get wrecked regardless. The most egregious thing in the game is the cosmetic stuff which takes the P but the bigger problem with the game is it is repetitive as f.

This makes me scared for what company’s could do by deploying tactics like this in the meta verse

this is so true I played a game called Brawl Stars in 4 years of playing I spent 500 dollars which all of them happened several months after making my first purchase. It’s crazy how games manipulate you into doing so

In rise of the kingdom game, there are people who spend over $200,000 on my server and still lose to someone who spent more than him

I remember a few years ago when Arun made video that had a sponsorship from a Mystery Box scam company I felt so disappointed because I genuinely loved his content and was a huge fan for years. I'm so glad to see him grow and learn to where he is today. Awesome content as always!

‘Preying on Addiction’ is a very accurate and disturbing term.

In United you should have used the level max card for items it's earned in events and i never paid a single dollar to unite but I have 5 Max lvl items and tons of Pokemon and holowear and 16 costume outfits

When I tried Pokémon Unite, I thought it was all bots because I never lost a match. However I also spent no money, maybe spending money triggers something now they know you're willing? Or maybe just poor matchmaking, I have no idea.

He's been killing it recently with these videos and going right for the throat of companies BS and issues, respect to that

He is never ever getting sponsored by a mobile game in his life and he probably knew that yet still made this video my respect for him is through the roof.

The call of duty mobile battle pass is a bit different. You only need to buy it once, and then you earn back the in game currency once you reach tier 50, so you can buy it again using that in game currency next season

Thanks so much for making more people aware of this!

The saddest Part why most people doesn’t oppress this is that it has become such a common thing nowadays, creating a feel that this is just what a game should be… kudos to Arun for standing against it

Android users be like that's why we have mods💀

This is hands down the best video on KZfaq!!! I am so guilty of spending money on mobile games and now I feel so dumb…. Never again not more dime. And honestly these people need to be stopped. How about we find the name and addresses of these people that make these games and go pay them a visit. Just saying I’m mad as hell

Unite is not pay to win. It is monetized. The issue is matchmaking and how little people are punished for trolling/AFKing. I’ve had similar matches where we turned around being down into wins but then same situation have players rage quit and AFK. There’s also issues with game not telling you effective strategies to winning and solo que is much worse than running with friends where you can chat on a discord call and coordinate better.

Bruh, as a pokémon Unite player I reach Master 1600 without spending irl money, I can say you don't need to pay some irl money to win the game, they even give you special item that can max out held item level even you not paying anything.

Some games I buy stuff but I stop playing them and I come back and the purchases are gone

After seeing this I uninstalled all my mobile games and realized I should buy a gaming console