The special events Niantic planned for Europe will be postponed, sadly. This weekend, the developer announced that a handful of Safari Zone events will be pushed to a later date, likely in light of the mess caused by the recent “Pokémon GO” Fest.
“In order to guarantee the best possible gameplay experience for European Trainers, we have decided to postpone the events in Europe scheduled for August 5 (Copenhagen and Prague) and August 12 (Stockholm and Amsterdam) until a date later in the Fall,” July 29’s blog post indicated. Safari Zones planned for Germany, Spain, and France are still on, fortunately, so is the Japan even happening in August.
Disaster at PoGo Fest
It was supposed to be the biggest event for “Pokémon GO” this year, but the Chicago event went about as poorly as it could have. Attendees could not get data service and ended up waiting on long lines without the AR-based game to keep them entertained. And beyond the cell networks having gone down, the game itself was also struggling.
Things devolved quickly, and now frustrated fans are suing Niantic after technical glitches left them unable to play the game at the festival last weekend.
Fans target Niantic
It’s been widely publicized that “Pokémon GO” made more than $200 million during its first month and the game continues to top the revenue charts on the app stores. All of that money has apparently made the game a target for some disgruntled fans and their attorneys.
Chicago-based attorney Thomas Zimmerman said he was contacted by Jonathan Norton, a California local who traveled to the area for the event. Since then, Zimmerman told Polygon that “20 or 30” others have joined the class-action suit against Niantic.
The lawsuit, which is seeking unspecified damages, argues: "Had those people who purchased tickets (and paid money for travel expenses) to attend the fest...
known that they would not be able to play the Game as advertised, they would not have purchased tickets or paid money to travel to and attend the Fest."
Niantic has already apologized for the technical issues, offered ticket refunds, provided players with $100 of in-game coins, and given out the legendary Pokémon Lugia to all attendees.
When asked to make a statement on the matter, Niantic said it did not comment on "pending legal matters".
Meanwhile, European trainers are still in for a treat. Niantic said in the same blog post that some rare Pokémon will be available for a limited time in “certain European cities.” The postponed Safari Zone events still don’t have new dates as of writing, but the developer promised to update fans soon.
