Attendees to disastrous Pokémon GO Fest refunded with PokéCoins and Lugia

Yesterday, Grant Park in Chicago was packed with thousands of Pokémon fans. People of all ages attended the Pokémon GO Fest in the hope of catching ultra-rare Pokémon at the special event, but things did not go well.

A series of technical glitches meant that game-creator Niantic was forced to cancel the event. The large number of attendees led to network issues which could not be resolved, causing anger and annoyance among fans. As part of its compensation offer, the company is giving festival-goers $100 of Pokémon GO's in-game currency, Pokecoins.

On top of this, attendees will all be given the rare Lugia Pokémon and will also be given the opportunity to catch and visit the event-only Pokémon, Eggs, and check-in PokéStops in an enlarged game area until Monday.

As well as making announcements at the event itself, the organizers took to Twitter to acknowledge the problems:

Trainers, we’re aware of server and connectivity issues impacting #PokemonGOFest and are working as quickly as possible to address them.

— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) July 22, 2017

Shortly afterwards a post appeared on the Pokémon GO website apologizing for the shambolic event:

Niantic Pokémon GO Fest Chicago Update

Today at Pokémon GO Fest in Chicago, technical issues created problems for a large number of players attending the event. From everyone at Niantic, we apologize to all of the Trainers who came out to Pokémon GO Fest today. Although we were able to solve many of the technical issues, we were not able to offer every attendee a great experience.

Niantic is taking the following steps immediately:

• All registered attendees will soon receive an email with instructions on how to receive a full refund for the cost of their ticket. These instructions will be sent to the email addresses associated with your Pokémon GO account.
• All registered attendees will receive $100 in PokéCoins in their Pokémon GO account.
• Special Pokémon, Eggs, and check-in PokéStops appearing during Pokémon GO Fest have had their range increased to a two mile radius surrounding Grant Park through Monday morning, July 24. These Pokémon and Eggs will only be visible to Pokémon GO Fest attendees who validated the QR code they received when they entered Pokémon GO Fest. Attendees who were unable to validate their QR code during the event can do so through the special PokéStops through Monday morning.
• All registered attendees will have the Legendary Pokémon, Lugia, added to their account.

We appreciate the patience of all the Trainers who joined us in Chicago this weekend. We will strive to make sure our experiences are of the highest quality going forward.

Photo credit: amirraizat / Shutterstock