I have more to add to this. Though I am glad that F2P works for some people, most others do not have that type of time to invest in a gacha game, and that's what UNITE is, a gacha game with MOBA gameplay wearing Pikachu's face. Even playing the MOBA parts is just another way to earn free currency to play the gachas. You really do need to treat UNITE like a second job to stay on top of everything going on, or be exceptionally lucky. Now, I did not say anywhere that this was the reason the game failed. I said I'm glad that it's going EoS because the monetization system is predatory and the game pushes out casual players and kids. However, it would be naive to say that this isn't partially responsible for why the game went downhill, if we're looking for genuine reasons for some of its failure. I could actually expand my thoughts on that, rather than just expressing my grievances: Obtaining a "broken new character" should not even be a prerogative. Having every item locked behind gacha systems, being bombarded with event ads and notifications on a slow and poorly optimized UI, having tons of pressure to complete multiple passes happening at once, limiting players on how much free coins the can earn to buy new characters, and having poorly balanced combat is not fun. This is just all wrong, this isn't good game design nor is it a viable method of retaining a playerbase. Pokémon UNITE feels like a chore, and you don't even get rewarded at the end for playing into it. The game was already under controversy from the community for poor business practices for years, so the shut down is not surprising for us. If my niece and her friends, who LOVE Pokémon, don't even want to touch this game then it's extremely indicative of how badly the devs messed up. Children should not be the targets of gambling, and they don't want to be, especially not on their phones or Nintendo Switches, and they don't want to play games that are so heavily skewed towards whales or adults with more time to invest than they have. It is not incorrect to state that the devs basically alienated what would have been their largest demographic. A thousand whales can not possibly compare to the tens of millions of children that play Pokémon games, most with parents more than willing to invest a little cash into their child's interests, and being unable to understand that was their biggest mistake. 1,000 kids asking their parents for $10 to buy an Eeveelution skin every month is smarter than relying on 100 adults to spend $50 every month. On top of that, the time investment needed to simply obtain a new Pokémon to play that's going to be outclassed immediately by the next overpowered Pokémon to release is extremely disheartening for the average player. Most people just want to play their favorite Pokémon in a game like this or whatever feels good to handle. Kids especially just want to play their favorites, and nothing else. UNITE's revenue hit an all-time low last year. It costs about $5 million-$10 million USD to keep a game like this running annually, and UNITE brought in $14 million mobile revenue last year, with only $18 million the year before it. Revenue continues to decline every year and players (spenders) continue to leave. Good games see players leave and return frequently, while still maintaining quotas. UNITE has more players leaving every year than returning, and ALSO fails to make substantial profits. I imagine that refusing to add a PC version of the game was also detrimental. And, like with every MOBA game, you will find that many of the beginner lobbies are full of botted accounts. On top of that, UNITE is really only popular in Japan. It has virtually zero player interest outside of the country, which is simply infeasible for the game to survive on given how expensive operation costs are to push the game onto a global audience. That's not even including the costs of IRL events. With that knowledge in mind, you can predict that by the end of 2027 the game would probably begin losing money. It's not hard to do the math. And truthfully, A LOT of people don't want to spend all that time and money on a Pokémon game that not even kids find enjoyable enough to revisit. There was genuinely something special here with UNITE, but the game quickly turned into micro-transaction riddled gambling slop with extremely one-sided gameplay, so once again I am glad to see it go.

I set up a Ko-Fi to make donating to me or requesting these types of YCH's way easier! You can go here to view and request your own! 💙✨ ko-fi.com/c/99db3491e8 ❤️+🔁 are immensely appreciated as always! Thank you so much!

All slots are filled! You can still donate if you'd like to support me a little bit, but I'm no longer accepting these YCH requests! Thank you everyone, I love you sm! 💙