When it comes to game hacks, never underestimate the value of a lawyer power up

Although Pokémon Go’s popularity continues to wane, the mobile game’s recent battle with PokéVision – the third-party Pokémon locator site – provides us with an important lesson on how the “game hack” can be a major threat to a game developers’ business and a high risk endeavor with significant legal consequences for game hack developers.

The innocent cheat codes of the Nintendo 64 era are child’s play compared to the highly sophisticated bots and game hacks of today’s mobile and online gaming era. Technology has revolutionized not only the way we play but how companies monetize and legally protect those games. This tectonic shift in the gaming business model provides game developers with more ways to assert their legal rights over game hack developers. In 1996, we definitely were not clicking “I agree” to lengthy terms of service before coasting down Rainbow Road and slinging banana peels on Mario Kart 64.