A Pokemon Go lawsuit that was filed against Niantic in 2016 has finally come to an end via settlement. The suit was bought to trial by a New Jersey resident. According to reports, the next court hearing for the case will be a preliminary approval of the settlement.
The hearing stretches all the way back to 2016 when Jeffrey Marden filed the suit against Niantic after the game had been out for a month. The New Jersey resident claimed that Pokemon Go had caused players to repeatedly knock on his door for permission to catch a Pokemon located on his property. The claim was based on the game causing a “continuing invasion” on his property and has been disputed for almost two years.
Though reports from the BBC (via gamesindustry.biz) suggest that the suit has now been put to rest, the figure that both Niantic and Marden have settled on remains an undisclosed one. And with reports suggesting that the next case hearing, scheduled for February 28, has been changed to a preliminary approval of the settlement, it appears that it’s just a matter of formalities before the case comes to an official end.
This isn’t the only trouble Niantic has had to deal with during Pokemon Go‘s lifetime. There were reports of people badly injuring themselves while playing the game, which saw Niantic introduce a fairly obvious warning that people shouldn’t play the game while driving.
But the bad press didn’t stem the flow of profits, with Pokemon Go netting an impressive $73 million in October of this year alone. The model has also played an influential role in the latest iteration of Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee for the Switch – and let’s not forget that Niantic recently gave us a first look at their Harry Potter game that follows a similar style to Pokemon Go.
