Pokemon Go Radar Apps Could Get Disabled says Niantic CEO

Pokemon Go has exploded across the world, with millions of gamers playing practically every single day. A big part of that gaming experience lately has been Pokemon Go radar apps or websites, such as Pokevision or PokeDetector. These services tap into the game and give players an exact location for nearby Pokemon, which they can then run to and catch. However, according to an interview between Niantic CEO John Hanke and Forbes, it looks like these services could get disabled some time soon.

When asked about these services, including Poke Radar, Hanke responded “Yeah, I don’t really like that. Not a fan. We have priorities right now but they might find in the future that those things may not work. People are only hurting themselves because it takes some fun out of the game. People are hacking around trying to take data out of our system and that’s against our terms of service.”

Forbes pushed Hanke on this a little bit, saying that many games offer cheat codes, and players enjoy them. “True but it’s a multiplayer context,” he replied. “It’s a constant battle. World Of Warcraft had that too.”

To add some personal opinion to this matter, this answer is ridiculous. The current state of Pokemon Go requires these apps to continue running. Niantic has disabled the only in-game method of tracking down and finding Pokemon, apparently intentionally according to those who have looked into the app. The nearby list has been broken for longer than it actually worked in the first place, and the only response that we’ve heard about it from Niantic was a very dodgy “we’re aware” from SDCC.

As someone who plays Pokemon Go practically every day, I have come to rely on these types of apps. I originally called them cheating as well, but the longer the game went on in its broken state, the more I began using them. And you know what? If they actually fixed the 3-step bug I would probably stop, as that method was more fun to me than simply knowing exactly where Pokemon have spawned. The only one here who is taking fun out of the Pokemon Go experience is Niantic for disabling a key part of the game, and not telling anyone when it would be returning. Hopefully they understand this and spend more time getting the 3-step problem resolved, instead of going after those who are making the game function in the meantime.