Niantic, developer of the hugely famous mobile game Pokemon Go had to postpone the event in Europe after technical failures completely ruined the Pokemon GO Fest in Chicago over the weekend.
The disaster left thousands (roughly 20,000) of players disappointed, a few of them deciding to go legal.
Niantic, a software development company based in San Francisco, is best known for developing augmented reality mobile games like Ingress and Pokémon Go.
Niantic apparently did not expect this huge of a crowd, and possibly wasn’t technically prepared to address the large gathering. When the numbers started increasing, the game server and the cell tower become overloaded and everything just ground to a halt.
Though Niantic quickly addressed the situation by refunding the amount, a few attendees claimed their travel expense. Most just left disappointed that they couldn’t experience the game as advertised.
Meanwhile, Niantic was planning to release Legendary Pokemon for the event, and if they were defeated, these same Pokemon would feature in Raid battles around the world. The company has also promised some very rare Pokemon for specific cities in Europe.
In a blog post, Niantic announced that the forthcoming events on August 5 and August 12 are likely to be postponed until this fall. But, the Pikachu Outbreak event in Japan scheduled on August 14 and the events in France, Spain, and Germany on September 16 remain as scheduled.
Niantic also apologized for the inconvenience, saying “we…hope you understand that our priority is to ensure a great experience for Pokémon GO Trainers in Europe and around the world.”
Niantic needs to move quickly to plan its upcoming events in light of new learnings from the one in Chicago.
Pokemon GO, a popular mobile game for iOS and Android, encourages people to venture out in the real world to catch Pokemon and compete in battles and raids. Pokemon Go is the most downloaded app of 2016 and it continues to enjoy a decent position – it currently stands at No. 41 among the top free app downloads worldwide on the App Store.
The fiasco in Chicago might not deter everyone from continuing their Pokemon journey, but some might be frustrated enough to just pull away; or, in several cases, join the class-action suit against Niantic.
Niantic is working on new updates to balance out the event experience and try to satisfy those disappointed fans that aren’t taking the legal route.
Thanks for visiting. Please support us on social media: Facebook | Twitter
