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Pokemon Go's Paying Population Drops By 79% -- Still Most Profitable Mobile App In The US (metro.co.uk)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Metro: The world's obsession with Pokemon Go was clearly never going to last, but the incredible thing about its success is that although the paying population of the game is now down by 79% from its mid-July peak it's still easily the most profitable mobile app in the U.S.. According to analysts at Slice Intelligence, at its peak Pokemon Go inspired twice as many people as normal to spend money on mobile games, but that's now returned to normal. But Pokemon Go still accounts for 28% of all money spent on mobile games in America, bringing in six times more than nearest rival Candy Crush Saga. The obvious problem for Pokemon Go is that there's not really much gameplay to keep you coming back, and as winter approaches wandering around the countryside is going to lose some of its appeal somewhat. But there's a huge range of new features that could be added to the app, and just this week has seen the introduction of the buddy feature that lets you walk around and team-up with a particular Pokemon. There's also the delayed release of the Pokemon Go Plus Bluetooth device and the recent announcement of the Apple Watch app.
When an industry refers to their most profitable consumer to exploit as "whales" you know there is a problem with a lack of respect:
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Have emergency room admissions also fallen? My neighbor is an ER physician assistant, and she said that about 10% of injuries are Pokemon Go related, mostly from people running around without watching where they are going.
The players are simply realizing the game is a scam that forces them to buy expensive virtual objects the more they are hooked to it.
A young family member is into this (I suffer from having to pony up an advanced allowance and having accompanying him to wherever these things lurk), and it has become increasingly difficult for him to cope with the unsatiable thirst of the game for "pokeballs" the higher his level gets.
The virtual critters become higher in level the higher in level you are, and they need more tries for being trapped (which requires one pokeball each), or require more virtual goodies for increasing their chance of remaining in your poke-inventory.
Also there are no shortages of pokemon, it's actually a barrage of the critters akin to a roach infestation. You can exchange the caught critters for "sweets" and "star dust" that allow you to improve the ones you have or "evolve" them. The idea is to entice you to go looking for pokeballs to catch the suckers that practically assault you everywhere, or buy more.
Ergo, the game is rigged to make any high level user run out of pokeballs very soon and to always want them, and has to go to wherever these things are replenished like a junkie, or buy them.
Niantic got themselves a pretty good money printing machine with that one.
When you're at a lower player level, it's lots of fun. Once you've caught most of the local pokemon it soon turns into simple grinding, however --- catching the same common pokemon to get XP, which you need more and more of to increase your level. You also get hugely shortchanged by not being in a major city. The presence of pokestops (necessary sources of in-game items) and more importantly pokemon are tied to where people aggregate. In a small city you will find a fraction of the quantity and of the variety in a big city.
Personally I don't play many games anymore because of the time commitment. Pokemon Go is actually awesome in that respect because for the most part you can only play it wondering around, no temptation to keep playing once you get home or to the office.
I have kept playing in the hopes that the gameplay would improve. But I'm pretty close to quitting myself. Hopefully they can make it enjoyable again before they hemorrhage all of their community.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.