By Anni Simpson on April 4, 2018 at 10:49am
Niantic is now paying up for their failed Chicago festival last summer. Pokémon Go players flocked to Grant Park on July 22 with promises of additional Pokémon, special stops, an exclusive medal, and more.
Users who attended the Pokémon Go festival will receive a notification in the Pokémon Go app prompting them to submit their invoices for travel and lodging so that they can be reimbursed by Niantic. The prompt will affect as many as 18,000 users who attended the festival.
With 18,771 people you would expect that there would be a lot more suits … because of the case law that uniformly dismisses these complaints. Thomas Zimmerman, Class Action Suit Attorney
The Chicago festival blew up in the worst way after Pokémon Go effectively glitched out for the entire day, which prevented users from participating in the game at all. Problems included the authentication system going down, as well as technical difficulties setting up the promised livestream on Twitch. Some users had paid as much as $400 for their tickets through eBay. Others also incurred travel and hotel costs to get to Chicago.
Even after “pumping up the bandwidth,” according to Niantic Chief Marketing Officer Mike Quigley, the livestream network and user authentication errors persisted.
I know that some of you guys have had trouble getting logged on this morning, and I wanted to let you know that we’re working with the cell companies — AT&T, Sprint, Verizon — trying to get that worked out. John Hanke, Niantic CEO
Attendees of the event can expect the notification on May 25.
Chicago Sun Times Pokémon Go Polygon
