Pokemon Go players call Niantic out for “worst ever” premium boxes

Pokemon Go fans aren’t happy about recent premium loot box options, vocalizing frustrations on social media platforms like Twitter.

Pokemon Go has seen many ups and downs through 2022. Despite a slew of interesting and engaging events and long-term seasons, the app has also faced widespread backlash for large-scale rollbacks on widely beneficial features.

These frustrations include the rollback of Community Day durations, changes to incense spawning, limitations on Remote Raid Pass purchases, and consistently buggy events.

While Niantic has offered many make-up opportunities for the event issues, the problems with core features of the game have yet to be addressed, and many players are feeling the constraints of three-hour Community Days and limited gameplay access.

Pokemon Go players are balking at microtransactions

Pokemon Go has always focused on microtransactions. Players must spend premium currency to obtain storage expansions, gameplay-altering items, and even access to events.

Unfortunately, while it is possible to earn a small amount of premium currency by placing Pokemon in Gyms for the day, the 50 coin maximum is just a fraction of the needed price for the bundles featured in the app’s game store.

Because it either costs real money or requires weeks of work to grind enough premium currency to make a purchase, it is understandable that players would want the loot boxes to feature useful items. Unfortunately, many Pokemon Go players feel the current box contents are a wash.

Player PetterScott states on Twitter “Who at Niantic has a totally burnt out breaker box? These boxes must be the worst we have ever gotten by a landslide! PASSES, INCUBATORS???”, pointing out the weirdly balanced incubator numbers in the boxes.

Additionally, Twitter user Murdaliz adds to the backlash, commenting “When you think this couldn’t get worse and then Niantic gives you this. Bring back Adventure boxes!” with an image of a 780 Poke Coin box featuring two types of Pokemon Go incubators, a Star Piece, and a handful of Pinap berries.

PokemonPlayerUK also shares a tweet that truly illustrates the issue, replying “1900 coins for this is painful, the Adventure Box was far better. Poor from Niantic.” to a box image that includes 15 incubators, 2 Premium Battle Passes, and 2 Remote Raid Passes.

While Incubators are handy, most Pokemon Go players don’t need them by the dozen for standard gameplay. Instead, Star Pieces, Lucky Eggs, Lure Modules, and Incense are much more useful and worth investing time and money into.

Hopefully, Niantic will consider rebalancing the premium boxes, giving players a more useful array of items to select between for upcoming events.