Niantic Labs Bans Then Unbans Wrongly-Prosecuted ‘Pokemon Go’ Players

When Niantic Labs decided to ban some “Pokemon Go” players who were using cheat tools that were specifically undermining the gameplay experience, it was widely considered a positive move. However, it turns out that there were players who were not using cheat tools per se, but were still banned. Now, Niantic is scrambling to unban these accounts.

In a blog post, the developers explained that the accounts that were mistakenly banned were casualties in a war where Niantic feverishly laid down the hammer against any account that had the signs of cheaters. The company maintains that they are still against third-party software that is meant to change how the game works, but it is softening its approach on a few that did not exactly fit the criteria that made accounts worth banning.  

The unbanning specifically related to users who were using third-party apps that were meant to make it easier to locate Pokemon, much like the three-step tracker used to do during the time when the built-in feature stopped working. These types of software could not be considered cheat tools because they essentially allowed players to catch the critters as they were meant to from the start.

Unfortunately for these players, however, the software also made it look like the players were trying to attack Niantic’s servers without realizing it. This is why they were banned.

"Some players may not have realized that some add-on map apps do more than just show you nearby Pokémon," the post reads.

As Polygon reports, however, accounts that were confirmed to have been using bots or experience boosting tools are never going to be reinstated. The trainers holding these accounts will have to do without officially playing the game again or simply find a way around it. Doing so will force them to start again, thus losing all of the Pokemon that they caught.