Players of Niantic’s iconic creature-catching spin-off Pokémon Go are encouraging each other to seek legal action against the game’s developer.
Following recent changes to the mobile game’s terms of service, fans are encouraging each other to sue Niantic over oppressive new restrictions they will face.
The new ToS rules altered the game’s “Dispute Resolution” clause. Under the new change, players will not be able to sue Pokémon Go developer Niantic in court, instead requiring a some neutral arbiter to determine an outcome.
Via Dexerto, fans of the game are urging others to deny accepting the new terms of service. One player, Logna9000, told other fans that they should try and protect their right to a jury instead of agreeing to the revised terms.
“Niantic is trying to take away your ability to hold them liable for anything that they may do,” the Redditor told their fellow players. “And this is the only way that they can be held accountable.”
The Redditor told players that they should send in an Arbitration Opt-out to Niantic protect their rights against the company’s future actions. While Niantic doesn’t appear to be working on anything that will require litigation, it’s always better to be prepared.
Fans on the Pokémon Go subreddit have expressed disappointment at the game’s alterations to the terms of service. However, others have noted that this change only really impacts US users as European gamers are protected under other means.
At the time of writing, UK gamers are protected by past precedent found in EEA laws. While EEA laws are technically not binding post-Brexit, the laws surrounding this particular incident have yet to be revised by British lawmakers.
Of course, anyone who simply denies the new Terms of Service instead of sending in an arbitration opt-out will be unable to play the game.
Pokémon Go developer Niantic has been under heavy scrutiny as of late due to numerous changes to the popular free-to-play game. Facing lower revenue than usual, the developer has been criticised for making the game less playable and raising prices.
Nevertheless, Pokémon Go is still a wildly popular game. With consistent updates still coming to the game, more and more Pokémon are present in the title. While it’s far from a perfect game, it’s still a lot of fun.
However, Niantic’s constant moves to make the game more restrictive for players has given fans a bad taste for the developer. Hopefully, Niantic will backpeddle on a number of recent changes that have made the game simply less fun to play.