Niantic Games is suing Global++, the organisation behind Pokemon Go’s most widely used cheat in an attempt to quell future violations of their intellectual property.
Despite having launched all the way back in the Hellscape that was 2016, Pokemon Go has been able to sail over some fairly turbulent waters and successfully grow into a somewhat consistent mobile game. With a constant string of events and content updates, Niantic has been able to carry their AR game from the flavour of the month to an experience that is still hugely popular three years later. In fact, it’s so popular that Pokemon Go has somewhat of a cheating problem with many players downloading third-party software to make the game easier. Programs such as Pokemon Go++ allow users to move about the world at double the intended speed, change their locations on a whim and see the locations of all the Pokemon on the map rather than searching for them. The use of these cheats has become so frustrating to Niantic that they’re officially filing a lawsuit against the developer of these mods, Global++.
The lawsuit states that Global++ is creating an unpleasant gaming experience for users within Pokemon Go which in turn causes players to abandon the game and damages both Niantic’s name and revenue. “Among other things, defendants’ schemes undermine the integrity of the gaming experience for legitimate players, diminishing enthusiasm for Niantic’s games and, in some cases, driving players away from Niantic’s games altogether. Defendants’ schemes, therefore, damage Niantic’s reputation and goodwill and interfere with Niantic’s business”. The lawsuit will require Global++ to stop the distribution of the hacked software and prevent them from reverse engineering any future updates added to Niantics existing games or games that will be released in the future. To add fuel to the fire, Niantic claims that Global++ has been able to earn money, via a subscription model to their hacks and uses up to 99% of Niantic’s original code to develop this software.
This lawsuit seems to come at a time when Niantic is gearing up for the launch of their next big augmented reality game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite which has seen a soft beta launch in Australia and New Zealand with a United States launch slated for this week. Niantic has stated that they’ve already discovered a hacked version of their new game entitled Potter++ which has required them to move quickly to avoid any backlash that could potentially spoil the larger release of what could be an incredibly profitable game for them.
Global++ has reportedly shut it’s figurative doors and removed their versions of the hacked apps in accordance with the lawsuit. Nearly all traces of the organisation have been deleted including its Twitter account, Facebook page, Discord channel and even their website.
Last Updated: June 18, 2019
Original Heretic
June 18, 2019 at 16:46
“Oh crap we got caught!”
“Shhhhh, shhhhh…. Let’s just disappear, I’m sure they’ll forget about us…”
Jay Jabrolsky
June 18, 2019 at 17:16
It is a sad time we live in where video game cheats are grounds for a lawsuit.
Pariah
June 18, 2019 at 17:26
It is a sad time we live in where people need to cheat in a video game to feel any sense of accomplishment in their sad, miserable lives.
Jacques Van Zyl
June 19, 2019 at 08:59
Probably poking the bear here, but I have a friend who regularly cheats in the games she plays. She played all of Dragon Age inquisition with unlimited health potions and such.
Honestly, the kind of cheating she does I feel is okay.
Pariah
June 19, 2019 at 10:19
Heh, in truth I don’t mind at all in SP games. People should play however they want. That dude’s tone though prompted a tart response, as I’m wont to do from time to time. 😛
Brad Lang
June 18, 2019 at 17:26
To be fair to Niantic, I think as much as the lawsuit was about “damaged reputation” another, more significant part of the case was that the development of the hacks used 99% of Niantic’s original code. So if Global++ was indeed making money via subscriptions, that would be an infringement of intellectual property and trademark.
Jay Jabrolsky
June 18, 2019 at 17:59
Perhaps I should have added a little bit more. The subscription and live service model can absolutely allow the developer the right to crack down on anything affecting their bottom line.
When everything is eventually a live service though anything “cheaty” to add some fun if you want would be verboten, I don’t care for cheat codes, but the fact that something added in the past for a bit of fun and hilarity to probably become outlawed is sad.
Look at the OpenIV debacle. The conflict between profit and single player freedom was the kind of situation I am referring to that will become more and more common with the shift in the industry.
Yahtzee
June 19, 2019 at 09:12
As a long time player and still current player of the game, I do have some sympathy for the minority of people who spoof on POGO just because Niantic is doing buggerall to help rural players out with pokestops and spawns. Sure they have some beta going on now for the last year about being able to submit new pokestops for lvl 40 players, but you can notice it’s just an after thought really and nothing is being furthered in that regard.
That being said as well, how many max level players do you think are going to go out of their way to help submit stops in dead areas? Why would they if they are max lvl that means they play in a really populated area of stops and spawns.