Niantic, the developers of Pokemon GO, are taking the developers of the PokeGO++ to court.
Niantic, the developers of the smash hit AR game Pokemon GO has filed a suit against Global++, according to a report from Business Insider. Global++ are the developers of PokeGO++ and Ingress++. The apps are modified versions of Pokemon GO that allow users to spoof their GPS location data, neatly overcoming the main aspect of Pokemon GO which is to interact with the location that you are in.
The apps also allow you to walk in circles to hatch eggs, find rare Pokemon, and generally avoid a lot of the parts of Pokemon GO that attempt to combine gameplay and the real world. In the lawsuit, Niantic refers to Global++ as “an association of hackers” that distributes “unauthorized derivative versions” of their apps including PokemonGO and Ingress. The group is also said to be working on a similar app for the upcoming Harry Potter: Wizards Unite game.
It is not the first time a developer will have found their work being hacked in this way, and it seems Niantic has finally had enough. “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 says.
Representatives of Global++ have yet to comment on the lawsuit, but according to PokemonGoHub.net, after the publication of the Business Insider report, the Global++ website has been taken down, all the servers have been deleted from Discord, and the community was advised that they would be shutting down indefinitely in compliance with legal obligations.
