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!

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 💀

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.

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

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.

that is why i only play chess

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

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.

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

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!*

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Someone tell this man about gacha games

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?)

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.

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

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' .

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

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

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.

Now people will know why most of PC, console games have a price, the devs of these games don't do scams.

As a paying player in mobile games, I believe only getting the best value pack is the best way to control your urge to spend more and more (I learned that the hard way even if at the first purchase I only thought of supporting the developers). Playing once in a while (control of game time) will also "detach" your sights a little bit from the tunnel vision of "pay to get good" from the game. Having F2P friends will also help, especially if they're also in your irl circle. I personally still spend some money on best value packs in games but mostly on prime times (big updates prep and post, specific character prep, etc.) and not otherwise. These "f2p" games are quite dependent on p2w players to go on and keep up the servers, so the hierarchy of players from f2p to p2w is actually like irl situation.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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. .

Bro, I never spent a single currency on pokemon unite, and I just grinded. Now my Venusaur is carrying me through the ranks. You don't need grade 30 on held items, just 20 and they are OP.

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

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

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 !

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

I just want to say that I have got into Master Rank in Pokémon Unite without spending a single dollar ever, not even on skins. I don't think that it's pay to win as it's showed in this video, they usually gift A LOT of Licenses and items to enchance Items to lvl 30 for free. Lately they have been letting you get new Pokémon without paying but by making daily missions. Also, the weekly coin limit is really high, specially compared with other free mobile games, so you can get a lot of skins and items just by playing. I do hate that they try to push you that much into buying stuff, though, but that's just 21th century consumism.

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...😞

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

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 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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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

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 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..

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.

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

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)

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

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.

Big red flag: when a game has like 10 different in-game currencies

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!" 🤣

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.

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

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

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...

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

That whole "sense of accomplishment" thing from assembling your Ikea furniture isn't really a thing in America because you have to assemble anything (furniture) you buy from Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Ebay, Kmart, Office Max, Big Lots etc..

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.

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

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.

I used to play a mobile game called World War Heroes by Azur Interactive Games and its ridiculous, it actually made me think I was good at the game for the first 3-4 weeks but then every single other opponent started getting weapons that were 10 times better than mine, then i stopped playing it, I decided to play it again a few weeks after and i found that i had randomly got 4 really good weapons that were previously impossible for me to get and so i decided to use them for a bit but as soon as i joined the battle the other players destroyed me once again with weapons still 10 times better than mine You've definitely put this nonsense into context for me, although, throughout the entire video i was wandering why people don't buy games on steam like the one of the battlefield games or call of duty warzone

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.

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

I personally think that the game industry is very similar to the gambling/casino indusry, they give you a dopeamine hit real quick, then they take it away just as fast. I understand how Arun feels because he is a F2P player but for most P2W people they have already accepted this reality. Also i dont think that the 175 gems = 5 dollars is really true because you can buy way more for way less when you wait for the right deals. i do also think the gacha systems are not good because its just glorified gambling, actually, its just gambling. The time crunch is very real, in raid, they host these events where every week or so they have a 2x chance for legendries or something. So it goes up from 0.5 percent to 1 percent, wow, so very generous of them.

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 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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Thats why I like fortnite, no aspect of it is Pay to Win, the battle pass is purely cosmetic and can be earned through organic means

hey sir big fan .. but want to say that games are for fun and fun only .. i played this game for fun in starting.. and now i have atmost all held item all maxed out .. costing me 0 ruppes .. its not all about items and all its about how much u understand the combo and stratieges.. in my opinion its all about having fun.. if you are having fun u can level up gradually

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.

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.

The confusion about what you are actually buying was the first sign to me that these games add ons were a scam. Luckily I've never been into games so not been caught up in the hype involved.

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

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!