Game cheats are a big part of the gaming scene, but not every game maker encourages it. Niantic is taking some serious action on Pokemon Go cheaters who use third-party software to “game” the game. There are any number of hacks that you can find for Pokemon Go, one of the most popular ones being location-spoofing software.
All that’s going to change, with Niantic bringing in a few feature to punish cheaters. Accounts that are known to use prohibited third-party software are being flagged. A flagged account will then only see common creature sightings on the map, not the rare ones.
This looks like a first attempt by Niantic at dissuading cheaters on Pokemon Go, but it’s quite ruthless, especially if you use legitimate apps like third-party trackers to help your game. If your account is flagged, then you won’t see much more than Weedles and Zubats all day.
With Legendary Pokemon just around the corner, you can’t afford to have your account flagged. What we recommend is that you stay away from third-party software even if it’s not for cheating. It’s still not clear what criteria Niantic is using to flag accounts, so you might be at risk even if you’ve never cheated before.
Pokemon Go is still a favorite for millions of addicted players, but the numbers are dramatically dropping. The first month earned Niantic $35 million from 30 million users, but daily user numbers right now are well below 5 million, indicating that it could have been just a fad for a lot of early adopters.
5 million daily active users isn’t too shabby for an online mobile game, but it makes you wonder why Niantic is putting the squeeze on people who use third-party software to cheat, especially when daily usage is at an all-time low since its launch nearly a year ago. It’s not like it’s an Olympic cycling event or anything!
Still, it’s clear that the company wants to do some serious Spring cleaning. It could be in preparation for the arrival of Legendary Pokemon this Summer, but it’s more likely part of a larger initiative.
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