Popular Twitch streamer and YouTuber Charlie ‘MoistCr1TiKaL’ White tested the ‘pay-to-win’ elements of new Nintendo Switch MOBA Pokemon Unite by spending $100 on Aeos Gems for item upgrades – and the results were ridiculous.
Released on July 21, hit new MOBA Pokemon Unite has drawn plenty of fans – and plenty of criticism.
Free-to-play for all Switch players, the game sees teams of five take control of Pokemon to battle it out in the arena, farming wild Pokemon and brawling opponents to claim points and score goals. The game was an instant hit on Twitch, bringing in over 200,000 viewers on release day.
But despite its success, the game has also been met with criticism for its ‘pay-to-win’ elements. Unlike other MOBAs such as League of Legends and DOTA 2, players can use real-life cash to buy stat upgrades for their characters, alongside the traditional cosmetic changes.
And Cr1TiKaL, as only he would decided to test the pay-to-win capacity of the game on his stream – and the results were quite something.
He dropped $100 on pure stat upgrades for his Pokemon, and roasted Nintendo over their choice of microtransactions. He said: “What a dumb f***ing system man, you can actually just buy an extremely huge advantage over people who don’t play. That’s crazy… this is legitimately pay-to-win.”
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As predicted, his Pokemon mowed through opponents with ease, and, after landing an easy double kill on two unfortunate victims, he added: “This is the most pay-to-win game I’ve ever seen in my f***ing life.”
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While these upgrades are also available for free, Cr1TiKaL explained that, prior to buying the upgrades, he was only able to upgrade an item twice in eight hours of playtime.
It remains to be seen where Nintendo will go next with Pokemon Unite, but Cr1TiKaL named his main wish. “The worst part of this is only being able to buy these [item enhancers] in batches of 50,” he joked. “They need to think of the whales… I hope in the next patch they address this.”