Niantic has filed a lawsuit against Global++, a group of developers that creates pirated versions of popular AR games like Pokemon GO and Ingress. Hacked apps like “PokeGo++” and “Ingress++” give users an unfair advantage while also violating Niantic’s intellectual property rights, the lawsuit states.
Global calls the “++” versions of the game “tweaked,” while Niantic calls them “hacked.” The “++” versions include features like GPS usage, auto-walking, and sniping, which are against the Terms of Service and Player Code of Conduct.
The lawsuit names 20 unidentified defendants, including members of Global++ who could not be personally identified. “Among other things, defendants’ systems undermine the integrity of the gaming experience for legitimate players, diminishing excitement for Niantic’s games and, in some cases, driving players away from Niantic’s games. Accordingly, defendants’ systems harm Niantic’s reputation and goodwill and interfere with its business,” the lawsuit states.
Niantic seeks to force Global++ to immediately stop distributing modified versions and to cease any reverse engineering of the official code distributed by Niantic.
Niantic will soon release a Harry Potter game. According to research, Global has been openly advertising Potter++ on social media since at least May 10th.
