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!

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

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.

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 💀

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

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

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.

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.

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

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!*

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

that is why i only play chess

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Brilliant content! Thank you 😮

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 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.

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)

Thanks so much for making more people aware of this!

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.

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.

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

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 !

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.

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

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)

Thanks for the mobile game development tips! 👍

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'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.

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 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.

In World of Tanks Blitz, you get deals for tanks saying 10000 gold with original price being 30k gold. In fact, they completely made up the 30k gold because those tanks are only sold in those deals, auctioned out once per year or sold in crates (anywhere from 1500 to 5000 gold per crate) with drop chances anywhere from 0.04% to 2%. It costs $100 to get about 75k gold in the x2 gold bundle.

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.

“And no matter how much money I paid, I still kept losing!” Wow, it’s almost like you can’t pay to win Unite…

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.

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' .

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.

To be honest, this is the only reason why the huge companies are beginning to make mobile versions of their games.

I've been across this channel multiple times but this video definitely related 🤙🏼. I 💯% agree with his feedback. Subscripting 😅

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.

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

Gooood videos! Thanks! And proceed having fun!

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...😞

The fact that the whole first half of this is the bare minimum I expect from any mobile game I play. But eh, can't scam you out of what you don't have

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.

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.

You are the Beekeeper of KZfaq fantastic channel 😎👍

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

Whats more depressing is the fact that genuine mobile games made with passion such as Angry Birds, Stardew Valley, and Jetpack Joyride no longer exist and get overshadowed by games that guilt trip you into spending tons of money. I'm glad lucky patcher and modded games exist. That should teach those money hungry companies a lesson Edit: I didn't say Angry Birds is different now. I'm saying that mobile games are different now. You can't really find games like Angry Birds anymore. Just look at Rise of Kingdoms and other misleading games. They force you to spend money to progress Edit2: I apologise for mispelling Jetpack Joyride as Jetpack Royale. It has been fixed now

Happy to see you talking about the pay to win problem in free games and games with Micro transactions in games(especially free games) where they try to make you from a gamer who play to a customer who will pay for the game. This problem is so bad that kids play them and in regular fact get addicted and start to spend money from their parents without the parents knowing that. This is why I prefer single player games.

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

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..

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.

2024 update: the game has had a big overhaul and now it’s much less play to win I was able to upgrade all my held items to level 30 in a couple days.

This is insane! It’s good to be aware of this!

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.

Wow I started this video thinking "Yeah I know these games are scammy and bad" but I never would've thought they're THIS bad and manipulative. Thank you for opening my eyes to this and spreading the message

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.

Thank you for the video

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

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.

This is very true. I have once been addicted to mobile games and kept purchasing the in app purchase, to the point i play the game at every leisure time i have just to make me feel that i play the game long enough to make my money worth. This made me fall behind my assignments. I have been that way until i have ftf classes again, the business and lack of high speed internet stop me from the addiction.

I had problems playing Pokémon Unite and every time I try to join a match I get kicked out is the servers down did they stop supporting the game? Did they shut it down completely so I don’t know

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

It was nice knowing you Arun, the gaming companies are already sending hitmen on your location for speaking truth

I love how you put your two cats on either sides right at the beginning of this video 😂

I can definitely agree. I’ve been really hooked on to Clash Royale. But then as soon as I got into higher arenas, the more difficult it came to win. I was also always tempted by the shop selling amazing deals. The game was really fun as first in the first few arenas. Another thing to talk about is the game’s matchmaking. Sometimes the game matches you with players with higher trophies than you, in which they completely trash me by spamming all their cards. And sometimes the game match makes me to an easier opponent which I find easy to win. Overall, Clash Royale is addictive in terms of its very friendly beginning.

It's funny because a lot of these hideous tactics being abused so much it does not feel like a big issue as it should be to a lot of gamers nowadays. Thank you for spreading awareness about this

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.

I never got tricked into these schemes, I actually either stop playing the game or level up my character without paying to spite them

I'm going to be honest. This reward factor never works on me.

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 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

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.

As a pokemon unite player myself I feel like there is one more thing. The fondness you have with the Pokémon, whether you see it in the anime or play it on one of the mainline games, the fact that you can play as your favourite Pokémon that you have so many fond memories with makes you go to any height to unlock it. That is why they are now releasing more popular Pokémon and having them behind a gem wall

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!

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

Funny that genshin impact got mentioned, since this game actually playable completely for free. You can even beat hardest content without spending a dime. The only pay in genshin happen when you want a character but you didn’t save currency. .

I like how they are just openly telling us how they trick and manipulate us in a recorded presentation.

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

I feel like even banks are going with this strategy of you not knowing what you actually pay for stuff. Because they have introduced the 'code-less - wifi' payment method. Now nobody looks at the screen anymore at what they are actually paying and therefore are losing the ability to know what something actually costs and is worth.

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

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 played Pokémon Unite for about 2-3 months. I won a lot of matches. I never paid a dime.

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

Someone tell this man about gacha games