New Pokemon Go Update Targets Cheaters

Following its explosive beginning, things have been rather quiet on the Pokemon Go front. This may probably be because the initial release didn’t quite live up to the announcement trailer. Of course, in addition to this, there is also the matter of cheaters. Almost every game released to modern gamers has people figuring out how to cheat. Pokemon is no exception.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqFQaL46lE0[/embedyt]

Niantic is finally getting serious about tackling cheaters with the most recent update. According to Slashgear.com, it uses something called ‘Safety Net’. Safety Net is the same system used by wireless payment systems on Android. Safety Net detects when an Android phone is modded. As a result, cheating by ‘Rooting’ your phone will be much harder.

Slashgear.com continues with this;

“As of now, any account for any version of the game below 0.39 will see the ‘update’ button in-game and will be unable to do anything but walk (without egg or candy reward) until they update. Any user playing with an automatic system will be flagged as they proceed to move in the game without updating, and a later set of bans will be enforced. Soon.”

People downloading Pokemon Go no, have this update automatically included. This seems like the start of an arms race between cheaters and Niantic. Yet Niantic are ahead of the game according to Slashgear.

“With this next update, they’ll have gotten to the point where each time a group finds a new way to circumvent their hacker-blocks, they’ll be able to release another set of anti-measures to fight back, so to speak.”

This might be the start of a rebound for Pokemon Go’s flagging popularity. With cheaters on the back foot, new content can get some spotlight. It may be time for player vs player to be introduced.

Joe Morgan

An avid gamer since Nintendo vs Sega was a thing, Joe hopes to one day be a game designer himself.

When he’s not working on his design document for his planned ‘Joe is awesome’ RPG, he spends his time writing, going to track days and going to his local cinema.