Pokemon Go players slam Niantic for cost of Master Ball

Pokemon Go players are furious with Niantic regarding the cost of a single Master Ball, which many see as too high for a one-shot purchase.

Pokemon Go focuses more on the act of catching a Pokemon using a Poke Ball than the mainline games (except for the Let’s Go titles), with players able to improve their chances of catching a Pokemon by throwing the Poke Ball in certain ways.

As such, it took years for Niantic to introduce the Master Ball to Pokemon Go, as this Poke Ball is designed to catch a Pokemon with 100% accuracy. All of the players who missed out on a Shiny over the years finally had a guaranteed way of catching rare Pokemon.

Unfortunately, there was an arduous process for acquiring a free Master Ball in Pokemon Go. Niantic has offered a second way of acquiring a Master Ball, but fans aren’t happy with it.

Niantic / The Pokemon Company

Pokemon Go fans are unhappy with the cost of buying a second Master Ball

A user on the official Pokemon Go Reddit has created a thread slamming Niantic for the $7.99 cost of the Master Ball task. Pokemon Go players swiftly arrived in the thread to air their grievances with Pokemon Go’s microtransactions.

Is $8 too much for a Masterball?
byu/wreckitrob1 inpokemongo

“I have my 2nd one, but if the case was that I didn’t, I definitely would not pay 8 dollar/10 euro for that,” one user writes, while another said, “every microtranaction in this game is a scam.”

One user summarized things perfectly, “Is $8 worth it for 1 Pokémon? I think no.”

A concept that came up in the thread is how Master Balls are worthless to some people, as they’ll never encounter a Pokemon that they feel is worthy enough to blow their only 100% shot on. This is similar to RPG players who stockpile the best items and then never use them.

Pokemon Go can be played without spending a dime, which means the developers must include artificial barriers to make sure the game makes a profit, such as the inventory update. The Master Ball is another extension of this, but $7.99 is still a lot of money for the equivalent of one guaranteed catch.