Players have been spoofing their location to Turkey in order to get Pokémon GO’s in-game currency for cheaper, so developer Niantic has increased prices across the region — and Turkish players aren’t happy.
As pointed out by a Turkish Pokémon GO player in an X thread, prices for the smallest number of Pokécoins have risen by 1300%, making the bundle nearly unobtainable for many players. It’s important to note that many video game marketplaces have localized prices for regions that have lower average wages. The average monthly wage in Turkey works out to just a couple of hundred American dollars (17000 Turkish Lira) when exchanged, which is how non-Turkish players were able to exploit the price discrepancy to get Pokécoins for cheaper. To counter this problem, Niantic has raised the price of the cheapest bundle from 2.69 TL to 39.99. That’s a jump from 0.08 dollars to 1.24 dollars. This might seem comparably small to US players but it is now more expensive to buy coins in Turkey than the U.S., despite the Turkish minimum wage being significantly smaller.
