Get your Pokédollars ready

TiMi Studio has unveiled a new in-game subscription service for Pokémon Unite, the hugely popular MOBA that recently surpassed 70 million downloads. Called the 'Pokémon Unite Membership', this scheme will give players monthly rewards for signing up for the service.

Don't worry, Pokémon Unite will remain free to play, and the rewards, for now, are mostly cosmetics and costumes, though some extra currency will handed out, too.

Serebii has translated what the monthly subscription service will give, along with one or two bonuses for signing up for the service, which we've listed below (thanks, Serebii!):

As a reward for signing up, you'll also get a fashion set designed around the Mythical Pokémon Hoopa, which is pretty darn pink and pretty darn adorable.

The Pokémon Unite Membership will cost 1150 Yen a month, which equals $8.99 or £7.15, though official pricing outside of Japan has not been revealed yet. We also don't know when the service will launch, but we'll let you know as soon as it does.

How do you feel about the subscription service? Let us know down below.

Yea that’s gonna be a no for me dawg

So they found a way to cram another monetization method into the game… wonderful.

Ouch. Not likely for me. As much as I love the game, I don't play mobas competitively or enough to justify subscribing to it.

Doesn't sound much different from the $5 season passes they roll out every 8 weeks. It doesn't sound too terrible, but it's also not something I'd personally spend money on.

At least all that stuff is just as optimal as the BP, even still I wouldn’t be caught dead buying that lol.

Sounds awful, just think in a few months you'd have spent as much as on a complete game or how it's almost the same price as Gamepass but just for one game

At least you called it like it is.

I have all the characters I want, so I'll pass

As long as it remains cosmetic only I have no problem.

Sounds really expensive for trials and a few gems. Not too sure who would buy this considering long time players will have unlocked most of the characters already.

Didn't they do the same thing with Cafe Mix but a little less money? Talk about Poking For Your Money Unite.

No real incentive to sign up to it at all going by what so called Rewards they're offering here so no. I stopped playing recently anyway for reasons I won't get into and I'm not sure if I'll be going back to it but put it this way I wasn't enjoying it anymore.

At least its all mostly cosmetics and shortcuts to cosmetics, but $9 a month is outrageous. I’m probably never going to go that more in depth with Unite. I was content with the good week I had with it and my friends last year though, but it does feel like it is meant to be predatory the more you play it.

If this subscription was more akin to Fortnite where it also provides the battle/season pass, I would be down. With what is currently on offer.... probably not.

Reminder: no one is forcing anyone to do this.

This seems like Fortnite’s “fortnite club” but without the whole battle pass being included thing

WTF happened to Nintendo being against micro-transactions? So many games are coming out with all of this extra crap to buy while you are playing a game. This is straight BS.

I decided very early on that I wasn't going to partake in the PokéMOBA, and seeing this further validates my decision.

I had so much fun with this game for about two months. I'm glad I managed to get completely out of it though.

Ohhhhhhhhhh nooooooooooo.... (it seems there's no immediately obvious gameplay advantage from this yet but still that's a yikers from me)

I don't know what a MOBA is. I don't even want to look it up...

I believe that many of those who criticize Pokémon Unite for monetization have no idea about the game or are only criticizing to criticize.

It is true that it is a free to play, however, so far, FAR, all the available Pokémon can be obtained without spending a penny, none!!, and also the objects for battles, all can be obtained without spending anything of money, all it takes is time and patience.

Of course, the real money expense goes for the character's clothing (good looking) and the Pokémon's holowear, however, that is not mandatory to play the game, and if it is required to rank, many people have achieved a better ranking without the need for a holowear.

In short, Pokémon unite is by far, A LOT, one of the few that has monetary predation.

Nah, nope, not for me.

I mean it’s just mainly cosmetics and it’s optional. Which boils down how this game makes money at all in a nutshell since you can get all the actual units free pretty easily. That is adding monetization done right.

You can tell a lot of the comments here never touched Unite as the game itself is actively very pro consumer FTP

@Bearzilla823 This game isn't really being ran by Nintendo.

There's definitely an idea here, but I'm not sure this is it. If you log in for 30 days, you'll have enough for a Tier 2 skin, which costs about $20. So I guess it comes down to what kind of skin they bundle with it. The big value of the Battle Pass is you get a basic skin, premium skin, exclusive cosmetics, & helpful items for a decent price, which appeals to more people. This basically boils down to, 'do you like cosmetics'?

i mean i bought Snoop Dogg for COD so...i guess this is okay? i dislike stuff that makes you log in for 30 days in a row or you miss what you paid for

@Arawn93 Can attest to that, I've been able to get both Gardevoir and Garchomp (two 10,000 coin mons) just by participating in the ongoing events at the time. I have a massive stack of coinage right now that I'm holding onto if one of my favourite Pokemon gets in (I've heard rumours of Glaceon and I would jump on that instantly).

$8.99 a MONTH is an insane ask for a single phone game. I can't even imagine.

@Mando44646 any money a month is an insane ask for any phone game

I played Fire Emblem Heroes daily and enjoyed it very much. I stopped playing the day they announced their membership thingie for exclusives

Really really weird comments got their undies in an uproar..it's a pretty simple concept if you don't like it...don't..buy..it?

Whoa look at that, nobody was harmed! There's this exact same type of thing in Fortnite, it's just cosmetic junk, who cares if they pander to the people who like such things?

@HollowSpectre Ah yes full fledged mobile games aren't games because...logic? Wait nope that's a complete lack of logic.

$8.99 a month…no way. Although TBH, I don’t play enough to even warrant $2.99 a month subscription. Most I’d pay is $.99

Fully expected! You get what you don't pay for!! They will slowly continue to make the pass more and more appealing...but only bit by bit to let people get used to each annoyance before introducing the next. It's literally a psychological trap. They introduce this new thing and the hardcore fans rationalize it as "at least it's cosmetics!" And then they toss in a single p2w element "It's not necessary to win games!" And then a bit more until you're missing out on entire features if you aren't subscribed to the service.

Oh and I'm not exaggerating. The example scenario is based on what happened with Fire Emblem heroes and its FEH pass. It WILL get worse.

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