Pokémon GO is celebrating its anniversary event with an Anniversary Box and a Pikachu wearing a hat. However, the box is not a gift; players must pay for it – and it’s not cheap. Fans are also asking: Another hat for Pikachu? The backlash surrounding the event is so large that even the Pokémon GO subreddit has gone into panic mode and has been temporarily closed.
Pokémon Go is celebrating its first anniversary and the backlash could hardly be bigger. In forums and on the Pokémon GO subreddit, players are complaining about the event and are simply disappointed and angry. They have two problems with the event:
Anniversary Event: Another hat for Pikachu
Pikachu has already had two events with hats. These do not make the Pokémon stronger; they are “only” for decoration. This is cute in itself and good for collectors. However, a third headgear is viewed as boring and uncreative. This time, there is the cap of “Ash Ketchum”, the main character of the well-known Pokémon anime.
The anniversary box is overpriced and not a gift to players
This hat wouldn’t be so bad and probably wouldn’t have triggered a major backlash. The problem lies much more with the anniversary box. The box is not a gift from Niantic for the birthday. Fans suspect that Niantic wanted to make a gift for itself instead.
The anniversary box contains various items that are helpful in the game:
- 6 incubators
- 6 max potions
- 20 ultra balls
- 2 raid passes
Players can purchase the box for 1,200 PokéCoins in the shop. That’s about 10.99 Euros.
Now many memes and angry posts about the event are appearing. Below is an example from the American president Trump. He is holding the box up and declaring that this is “the worst deal in the history of deals.”
The backlash has hit the Pokémon Go subreddit so hard that the moderators had to trigger the “panic mode” . This means the subreddit was closed for a limited time until the moderators got everything back under control.
Niantic has not yet commented.
What do you think about this anniversary event?
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