Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Niantic, pokemon, pokemon go

Niantic Just Took Aim at Cheaters in Pokémon GO

Published Sat, 02 Jun 2018 18:45:16 -0500

Kinda hard to believe (although it shouldn't be in this day and age) but there are people who feel they need to cheat on Pokémon GO. People have been downloading third-party software to help trick the app into thinking you're in different locations around the globe to catch regional creatures. This week, Niantic decided to stop up their anti-cheating game and made it clear they would start taking more aggressive action against companies that help players cheat the system.

As part of our commitment to fun and fair gameplay in Pokémon GO, we're continuing to take action against users who use third-party services that circumvent normal gameplay and violate our TOS. Pokémon caught using these services will appear slashed and not behave as expected.

— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) May 31, 2018

Whether or not it's going to be impactful or effective is another question altogether, as Niantic can slow them down but they'll have to go to court to probably stop companies from providing the software cold. However, players who are caught usually end up in Pokémon GO's version of purgatory as the creatures they collect becomes "slashed", which means they can't be upgraded, tended to, evolved, or fight for you in any way/shape/form. It's basically the closest step the company can take next to identifying your phone and banning you and your account from the system.

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