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Niantic takes legendaries away from Pokemon Go players due to 'fairness'

Other legendary Pokemon snuck into the game early, so the developer revoked them to even the playing field.

David Craddock

August 3, 2016 3:15 PM

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Yessir, we Ohioans have it pretty good. The weather can cycle from rain, to sun, to snow, to end-of-times storms, and back again within a single day (or a single hour), offering unparalleled variety and excitement. And we've got legendary Pokemon to boot! Or at least, we had legendary Pokemon. But, hey, you don't have them either.

A legendary Articuno spawned in Ohio for a couple of Pokemon Go players earlier this week, and the Coveys, the couple that bagged it, posted a video to a Dayton-area Facebook group as proof (via Kotaku). Other players accused them of cheating, and they were spot on: a few legendaries had somehow found their way into the game. Once Niantic became aware of the situation, it evened the playing field by nuking all legendary pocket monsters.

"We recently noticed that a few Legendary Pokemon got into a few accounts when they shouldn’t have," the developer said in a statement to IGN. "To preserve the game’s integrity and as a measure of fairness, we have rectified the situation and revoked the legendary Pokemon from the Trainers’ accounts."

According to various reports, it was pretty obvious the Coveys knew their find was illegitimate. They supplied an email allegedly from Niantic that misspelled "Articuno" as "Articundo," and the developer issued a statement to Geek.com stressing that they had not rolled the Pokemon into the game.

Niantic's got its hands full with Pokemon Go-related issues this week. The developer launched the game in Brazil for the Olympic Games, and has earned over $160 million despite backlash against changes applied in a recent patch.

David Craddock

Long Reads Editor

David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.