Huge crowds at Chicago’s Grant Park experienced technical glitches at the Pokemon Go Fest
A major Pokemon Go festival in Chicago Saturday to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the virtual game went badly awry when technical glitches prevented many fans from logging on.
The problems forced Niantic Inc., the developer of the wildly popular augmented reality game, to issue a statement saying everyone who registered for the event would get a full refund for the $20 tickets and $100 in credits for use of the app.
Niantic CEO John Hanke was booed when he took the stage at Chicago’s Grant Park to address the thousands of frustrated Pokemon enthusiasts.
Some in attendance had paid as much as $400 online for the tickets, which sold out within minutes of their June release. While no official attendance figures were available, organizers had planned for as many as 20,000 Pokemon players and “trainers” at the festival billed by Niantic as the first official anniversary event in the world.
Mark Haberkorn of Chicago, a member of the Official Pokemon Go 40 Club, an international online community of high-level players, said he started waiting in line for the opening of the festival at 6 a.m.
WATCH: Pokemon Go: More injuries reported from playing the popular game
“The excitement has just been drastically minimized because of what we’ve experienced today,” Haberkorn told the Chicago Tribune.
Late in the day, Niantic’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Quigley tried to placate irritated players by announcing that everyone who scanned a code when they entered the park would automatically receive the Legendary Pokemon Lugia, a rare and powerful creature difficult to defeat in virtual battle and prized by Pokemon enthusiasts.
Niantic says Pokemon Go has been downloaded 750 million times since it was launched. The augmented reality game that uses GPS to locate, capture, battle and train virtual creatures was introduced in the United States in July 2016.
- Posters promoting ‘Steal From Loblaws Day’ are circulating. How did we get here?
- Canadian food banks are on the brink: ‘This is not a sustainable situation’
- Is home ownership only for the rich now? 80% say yes in new poll
- Investing tax refunds is low priority for Canadians amid high cost of living: poll
Comments