Over the weekend, we reported on the distastrous Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago, where thousands of paying ticket holders spent most of the day waiting in line and dealing with connection issues and bugs that made the game they were there to celebrate virtually unplayable. Massively OP’s Andrew Ross did a piece for us yesterday outlining everything that went wrong and how frustrating it is for Niantic’s fans to watch it make mistake after mistake. Well, the silver lining is that Niantic is stepping up to take full responsibility and attempting to make amends.
“Obviously they can’t completely make it up to all the people who have come out to Chicago today, but they want to extend the fact that they’re extremely apologetic and unhappy with the process and the results,” a Niantic spokesperson reportedly told press. “So hopefully this is something that we will never see replicated again, learn from this and move on. […] Just know that the staff here are pretty horrified with the results, so they want to make good as fast as possible. I’m super sorry guys — I’m really sorry especially for everyone who traveled international, East Coast, from all over. So this clearly was not what we were hoping for today. Thanks for your patience.”
Those statements to press were followed up with an official apology. The company is granting full ticket refunds to all ticket holders (though of course, if you paid extra for scalped tickets or paid for travel, you’re still out the difference), in addition to $100 in-game currency, a free Lugia ‘mon, and an extension on some of the event perks, which turned out to be much perkier than originally promised. Since the event, the extension has been lengthened, such that global rewards are still unlockable through this coming Thursday.
So yep, the company’s making amends. But the real question is whether Niantic will learn from having to do so.
Trainers, the global rewards unlocked during #PokemonGOFest have been extended 72 hours. They will now end at 5:00 P.M. PDT on July 27.
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) July 25, 2017
