“Pokemon GO Fest” was shaped to be the most compelling real-world event in the history of mobile gaming. Niantic was all out, sharing all the details about it. As a result, fans gave in, bought tickets, and flew to Chicago’s Grant Park.
However, as reported by NBC Chicago, “Pokemon GO Fest” turned out to be a massive disappointment. In-game functionalities such as raids were not working, rending the gameplay useless. This is not to mention the hours-long lines just to enter the vicinity. Everything was just a total mess.
Niantic moves forward with compensations
The event above was supposed to be a culmination of the first-year anniversary of the game. It is where players meet other players and work alongside each other. Together they must undergo challenges, all leading to the unraveling of the highly anticipated Legendary creatures. Unfortunately, these did not happen at all. Niantic has already issued refunds to an estimated crowd of 20,000. Some were devastated, while others were totally disappointed. This was even a burden to players who flew in just to join the celebration.
Addressing the issues, the studio’s chief marketing officer named Mike Quigley went onstage to address the crowd of “Pokemon GO Fest.” Although he got booed, he still went to explain the reasons behind the issues.
“One is a network issue,” he revealed. He explained that one of the networks were trying to pump in more bandwidth, resulting to the connectivity issues of some players. The two remaining issues, unfortunately, were on Niantic’s side. There was “a crash bug” problem, as well as an authentication issue. All of these rendered the entire event useless, as players cannot play the surprises prepared by the studio.
Most are still not happy despite refunds
Quigley confirmed that the company would be offering $20 refund to the attendees of “Pokemon GO Fest.” Players who purchased the $100-worth of in-game credit (Pokecoins) will also be refunded. However, these refunds were only a fraction to players who purchased airline tickets just to join the event.
This is not to mention the time and efforts they invested just to be with Niantic at Chicago’s Grant Park. This is definitely a huge dagger to the company.
As a form of compensation, Niantic released the two Legendary creatures in “Pokemon GO Fest.” These are Lugia and Articuno. Supposedly, players will have to unlock them by completing a series of challenges. As soon as completed, these Legendary creatures will then be made available worldwide. But with what happened to the event, the unique beasts were released right away with no challenges required. Players from around the world can expect these creatures to arrive in Raid Battles over the next 48 hours.
