Another nice move by Niantic (sarcasm)
So I opened the game this morning just to see the price of pokécoin going up wihout a single notification, not an ingame alert, not an email, not even a tweet or any kind of official alert. Nice done Niantic, if you want to bring old users back or engage with us this is the best you can do, not only you don't get rid of cheaters/botters/spoofers that fills 80+ gyms taking the chance for players to reclaim coins but you raise prices without any notification, of course players are not stupid, hope that 0.10€ more (100 coins), 0.5€ more (500 coins) and 1€ more (1200 coins)... will make you loss hundreds of milions ;)
I guess that with the upcoming gym rework or next event, we gonna need to buy more coins for something, probably they will remove coins completely from gym making the game all pay to win, or add breeding in order to people pay for those incubators at higher prices, I really hope I am wrong...
Note: I am in Spain, so no Brexit or other kind of "visible" reason to me for this raise on prices.
Answers
If that was the case, there is no posible explanation why there has been no changes during almost a year of the game, exchange rate between USD and any other coin vary every day, not once each 10 months...I have never seen a single price change since release until today so my guess is that this could be intentional by them.
Also they added some sort of promo code in the shop just to remove it a few hours later, this seems some kind of preview of what is comming on the next update, they are touching things server side...
Again I might be mistaken (and I really wish I am), but currency exchange does not explain this, and even less if other € countries are not affected (still have to confirm this)...
It might not be Niantic's fault.
I did a little searching online and found that Apple have increased prices for countries that use the Euro, and the proposed hike seems consistent with what you are seeing: https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/27/apple-increases-app-store-pricing/
Now, it looks like your phone (correct if I'm wrong) is using Android, but it's been known for them to follow suit. Back in January, Apple raised their UK prices by 25% because of Brexit and, not long after that, Google did the same.
Yes, I am using an Android device, but i am not from UK, I yet have to confirm if it is happenning to all euro countries, if it has happened to all countries then you are probably right, but I have not seen anything on reddit or other forums, just on Spanish FB groups, that makes me wonder if it is intended or not...
This is exactly what I thought, I don't know why some people keeps defending Niantic, they have absolutely no excuse, they not work for Google or Apple, they own their product and establish their prices. If there is some kind of fluctuation and the Google/App store makes them put higher prices it has a very easy fix, for 0.99 we got 100 coins, make them 120 for 1.09 (just an example), then players are not "paying" that consequences.
But instead of that they just raise the price without any notice, waiting for us to keep paying like idiots. Acting like this, like a kid that hides from their parents to do a joke, makes me pretty mad. I did not have spend a cent single halloween, and when an event comes out I am always close to pay again, but I am glad I did not do it, because they don't deserve my money at all.
Have you read my comment at all? Google and Apple DON'T rules pokémon GO, another one trying to defend Niantic, if the in app purchase must be 1.09, give more coins instead of 100 so the in game currency remains the same, probably Niantic has not turned the switch, but they are as guilty as Google and Apple, and if you don't see that you are blind, period.
I despise Niatic but I'm not going to attack them out of false ideas and ignorance.
You have no idea how this works. Last week both Apple and Android decided the exchange rates were off. They pay niantic in USD so APPLE or ANDROID adjusts the charges per their exchange rate projections. Other than being informed this was happening Niantic has nothing to do with it. They still get $1USD/bundle or whatever their exact deal is with the provider after the service charge. It isn't just Pokemon go, the providers will all have their prices for all games. But hell if you want to witch hunt against facts and logic and think Niantic decided to just attack your country with a price increase, carry on.
I will repeat it for the last time, maybe I have no idea about how this works, but I know how a business works, and how COMMUNICATION works. Niantic knew about that price increase, but they choose to NOT say anything to their players, Niantic could have change the coin amount, so that for the same previous price the user has not to pay more, chose to NOT, Niantic could have added different packs or do some special offer to mitigate this, chose to NOT.
I could continue all day long, but I think that you will get the idea of how this works. As a customer I think I have the right to complain when something changes on the products I buy.
I will put a hard example here, you see your brother killing someone at home, but you choose to not say it to the police, you are part of that crime, like it or not, so this is the same, Niantic has the fault, even not all of it, it is part of their game no?
Meloscomo:
Apple and others have decided that in the case of the Euro they cannot continue to pay Niatic what they owe them per unit sold. So they raised the cost. You are saying Niantic should give you more items because they are getting less money? Jesus Christ.
And it isn't just Miantic. You can go to most other large digital games and find the same. Here si a link to Marvels contest of Champions for example.
http://community.kabam.com/forums/showthread.php?793107-Unit-packages-pricing
You are arguing that Niantic owes you something because your local currency is worth less money? ANd you should be compensated or pay less real money than the rest of us? I have no argument for such logic because there is none. This is simply a rate adjustment so that those with certain currency pay the same as everyone else. Niantic in theory does not make more money...in fact, since it looks like they only raised the price on the lesser packages it looks like you guys can now theoretically spend less than your American counterparts do in USD. So congrats, everyone actually got screwed except you guys who now get a technical discount. I guess we should all be pissed.
I think that Niantic owes me an explanation at least. I am their costumer, I pay for their game, then the least they can do is notify me and all their costumer when their prices or their product changes. Again, I maybe don't know how this virtual market works as well as you, but I am a costumer, I am a person, and I expect the company which bills I am paying to have at least the communication to say when something as important as prices are going to change.
You can say anything about currency, about Apple or Google stores, anything, they can have hundreds of troubles as a company, but nothing excuse them for not notifying their players this.
And you know something else? A simple email or in app notification saying something like "Players, because of recent changes on currency on Google and Apple stores prices our currency has also been increased for you, we are sorry about any inconvinience this may cause" and all the hundreds of thousans of players that don't know how this works and that are mad at this point will even be happy and don't mind spending more money on the game. But again, they choose to not say it.
Firstly, I understand your anger. It sucks to se the numbers go up whatever their relevancy to world markets. And I get it, unless you receive a pay increase the prices did technically raise for you.
In regards to communication, I have routinely said on this site that the lack of such is my biggest problem with Niantic. Most if not all other games of this magnitude have a message board or something similar.
But Niantic didn't drive this or "greed" this into being. That is all that I'm saying. Now, if we want to talk about over speculation in projected figures of money exchange markets or the general profits reaped by what appears to be overly reactionary changes in such over time we can. But none of that is Niantic or any other game. I don't expect Niantic to warm me Tsunamis in China or the fine points of the currecy exchange rates. They are just as crappily subjected by them as you are.
I understand what you are saying, I don't say that you are not true about the Apple and Google stores being guilty of this. But I think you are wrong saying that Niantic has zero fault on this, they are
accomplice (I don't know if I used the word correctly, no native English) but I think you get the point, if something happens in their app that they know about, something as big as this that affects hundreds of thousands of players all over Europe, and they choose to not say anything, they are indirectly guilty of it.
They probably don't have the power to change it, but have the power to mitigate it, the power of communication is something that this company keeps underrating day after day...And they are not learning at all about their mistakes, that's what makes me really mad, it is not the increase of prices alone, it is what it is behind it.
They take the easy path always, look at the other direction as it was not their problem, this is their problem because it affects their users, the same as spoofers, booters and cheaters, the same as invisible gym mon, the same as app crushes and battery drains, and a long etc...
As a company if your user has a problem you should at least emphatize with them, calm them down and explain each situation, not expect things to go perfect without doing anything.
Right. Which is why I cannot understand why they do not have a feedback board. It makes so many of their actions look blind or just stupid. We are left in the dark as players much more than most any other online game of size I have ever participated in. I did notice that Niantic put official reps on the Silph Road site yesterday so perhaps this will change.
