Pokémon Go creator Niantic won a $ 5 million deal against Pokémon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter Unite Wizards trick creators in 2020 – the culmination of a process that opened in 2019. But it wasn’t just behind the trick creators. Niantic announced on Tuesday that it had issued “punishments” for more than 5 million players in the three games since 2020.
More than 20% of these punishments, Niantic said, were “permanent bans”. Cheating Pokémon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite in large part it means using hacked programs, like those mentioned in the process, that allow players to access modified versions of the game that allow for the falsification of GPS and the “auto-walk” functionality. This allows players to play Pokémon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter Unite Wizards without leaving the house or actually moving to a certain location.
(Niantic made some changes in March, however, to make the game easier to play at home during the ongoing pandemic. Some of these changes were reversed, however.)
While cheating Pokémon Go and other Niantic games largely affect hack users, some argue that does impact some of the player-versus-player elements of games, such as gyms.
Niantic said more than 90% of players stopped cheating after receiving a notice from the company.
“We are committed to ensuring fair gameplay across our game portfolio,” said Niantic in a blog. “Every day, new forms of cheating or counterfeiting tools are made available on the Internet and we are continually working to combat these cheaters and focus on improving our detection and enforcement; since they have no place in our games. “