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Pokémon GO developer Niantic has announced that it has “issued punishments to more than 5 million cheaters” across several of its games since 2020.
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The developer shared the news via a blogpost on Tuesday, February 23, in which it detailed a number of anti-cheat measurements that it has adopted to make its games a fair experience for all players.
Niantic shared that it does not typically talk about its anti-cheat measures as “we don’t want to provide cheaters with information that can help them understand our detection mechanisms better”. However, the company is now sharing new information as a way to assure players that cheaters are being dealt with.
Niantic revealed that since the start of last year, over 5million players have been “issued punishments”, with over 20 per cent of those players receiving permanent bans. It is currently unclear what other forms of punishments were issued.
The company also noted that over 90 per cent of all players who received warnings for their first offence had stopped cheating afterward. In the meantime, Niantic has “invested in new and emerging technologies”, which it will enforce over the coming weeks “to improve our detection and enforcement capabilities”.
On the Ingress front, Niantic has announced a new Fast Track process, through which players will be able to request for “quicker manual intervention, before the rogue Agent can cause more damage to the gameboard”.
Following the feature’s recent implementation, around 70 per cent of requests were expected for review, resulting in cheaters being dealt with at a quicker pace.
In other Niantic news, the developer has announced its plans for the next season of Pokémon GO. Season Of Legends will kick off on March 1 and will conclude on June 1. The season will also include three legendary Pokémon, Therian Forme Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus, as well as hemisphere-exclusive Pokémon.
The post Over 5million ‘Pokémon GO’ and ‘Harry Potter: Wizards Unite’ players have been “punished” for cheating since 2020 appeared first on NME | Music, Film, TV, Gaming & Pop Culture News.
