Pokemon Unite devs reveal why they hide game scores until match ends

Unlike other MOBAs, Pokemon Unite doesn’t let players check the team scoreboard until the end of the match. The developers admitted it was an intentional decision and revealed the reason why.

In Pokemon Unite, the team with the most points wins the game. However, the game doesn’t tally them until the end. It does audible drop hints to let players know if they’re ahead, but it’s subtle compared to a scoreboard. It’s something that has miffed players since the game launched in July 2021. However, the developers finally admitted it was an intentional decision and revealed what motivated them to do it.

Masaaki Hoshino, who works as the game’s producer, responded to an email sent by Kotaku about the omission. He explained that the reason behind it was that they don’t want players to give up like they do in other MOBAs. “The matches last 10 minutes and players have the possibility of making a comeback, so we wanted people to play without giving up to the very end,” he said.

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Giving up is a huge issue in other MOBAs. League of Legends allows players to vote to surrender the game after the 15-minute mark. Dota 2 has no such option. However, players tend to delete their items and AFK in the base instead.

Pokemon Unite does have issues with players going AFK when things aren’t working out for them. The community has been calling for more report options to help resolve the problem, although they haven’t been implemented yet.

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The game is still a work in progress that could benefit from other additions, too. However, at least we finally know the reason why players can’t check their team’s score until the end, and it wasn’t an oversight.