No Mercy From Niantic Labs Shows, ‘Pokemon Go’ Cheaters Perma-Banned

Following Twitch’s announcement that users streaming “Pokemon Go” while using cheat tools, software or bots will be punished, it seems Niantic Labs has finally decided to step in. Now, cheaters are getting banned permanently from the game, their accounts terminated as a result of their actions in gaming the system.

Cheaters at “Pokemon Go” typically make use of tools that allow them to do things like changing their geographical location so that they don’t have to do any of the actual walking to hunt for the little critters, and bots that significantly increase the number of experience points that they get. Suffice it to say, these methods make the game incredibly unbalanced, affecting other players who are actually trying to complete the game through honest means and hard work.

As a result of this rampant use of cheat tools, Niantic is stepping in and is now banning players found using cheats permanently, Mashable reports. The update was made quietly by the developers, which is why it caught the cheaters off guard.

Aside from the aforementioned methods, players who used third-party software in order to obtain the game are also up for a perma-ban, which may or may not extend to players in other regions who opted to obtain Pokemon Go via third-party software even though the app was not officially released in their country. Fortunately for players who want to argue their case, they actually can submit an appeal to Niantic, but there is no information as to how such cases would then be handled.

As VineReport pointed out, Niantic is going to be waging a long campaign against cheaters in order to make the game as fun for as many people as possible.

"Our goal is to provide a fair, fun and legitimate game experience for everyone," Niantic Labs said. "We will continue to work with all of you to improve the quality of the gameplay, including ongoing optimization and fine tuning of our anti-cheat system."