Paid Log-In Bonuses Are The Worst Mobile Scheme In Years

thegamer.com:

Generally speaking, I’m not ashamed to call myself a mobile gamer. Five years ago, the mobile game market was a hellscape of nothing but hyper predatory free-to-play money pits, but things have definitely changed for the better. There are still plenty of overly monetized skinner box apps floating around, but the most popular and successful mobile games of today have a lot more actual gameplay to offer than old standards like Clash of Clans or Candy Crush. Games like Genshin Impact, Pokemon Unite, and the newly released Apex Legends Mobile have found a more reasonable MTX balance that avoids putting players into high pressure situations to spend at every opportunity. That being said, there’s a growing trend in these games that crosses the line for me. All of these games now feature paid log-in bonuses that pay out small amounts of premium currency that you need to manually claim every day. It sounds simple, but it’s one of the more nefarious tactics I’ve seen in a long time.

I didn’t even know paid log-in bonuses were a thing until earlier this week when Pokemon Unite introduced the Unite Pass, a monthly subscription that provides players with cosmetics, discounts, and a daily trickle of Aeos Gems, Pokemon Unite’s premium currency. For $10 per month, subscribers can earn 40 gems a day for a total of 1,200 each month. It’s a good value, considering 1,200 gems would normally cost you $20 in the shop, but the catch is you have to log-in and claim each batch of 40 gems every day.

Related: Don't Pay For Pokemon Unite's Weird Early Access To Espeon

Apex Legends Mobile, which launched a day after the Unite Pass, has a very similar offer, though unlike Unite it makes no bones about what it is you’re really paying for. By