Niantic Issues Refunds to Pokemon Go Fest Attendees After Server Issues
Boos and jeers rained down on Pokemon Go's developers at Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago.
Niantic has been celebrating the one year anniversary of their smash hit mobile app Pokemon Go for all of July. The celebration was meant to culminate with a massive gathering of Pokemasters at Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago today. After several hours of network connectivity issues at the event, the 20.000 fans turned restless. There are reports that several attendees threw garbage of the stage as Niantic Labs' CEO John Hanke tried to settle everyone down.
lol, people booing at Niantic CEO John Hanke on stage at Pokemon Go Fest because the game is unplayable for many attendees pic.twitter.com/QFZQTiMRxr
— Wario64 (@Wario64) July 22, 2017
Things didn't improve and the crowd continued to get more and more restless as the large screen that was meant to display worldwide progress of the Pokemon Go Fest goals just sat there reminding them that they couldn't even play the game that they traveled all the way to Chicago to play.
Some unhappy campers at #PokemonGoFest -
— chip sineni (@chipsineni) July 22, 2017
Son got on with Verizon, can't login with AT&T :( pic.twitter.com/uJlc1rZ71W
Niantic Labs' CMO Mike Quigley took the stage to explain that the Pokemon Go development team was working on a fix to the issues, but it appeared that it was too little too late. Shortly after being booed off of stage, Niantic announced that all attendees would be issued refunds. This is yet another black eye for the popular mobile game that has had quite a history of being a bug-riddled mess.
2/2 #PokemonGOFest Network and bugs issues. Crowd is going nuts.
— Dr Five (@Dr_Fiv3) July 22, 2017
Some material for you:@maxmoefoe @PyrocynicalVEVO @PhillyD pic.twitter.com/mNEo2Ogjou
Pokemasters in attendance will be given refunds as well as $100 worth of Pokecoins for their troubles. This is a decent amount of damage control, but it is hard to escape this level of public embarrassment. Did you attend Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago today? Let us know in the comments section.
In case you missed it, check out our feature on The Making of Pokemon Go.
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Asif Khan posted a new article, Niantic Issues Refunds to Pokemon Go Fest Attendees After Server Issues