The first Pokémon Go Fest live event in Chicago was a bit of a mess, to say the least. Despite having plenty of time to prepare and having overcome similar hurdles with the game’s general release this time last year, the thousands of players who attended found themselves unable to play the game for long periods of time, with mobile networks flooded and a few bugs creeping into the code on Niantic’s side to spoil the fun.
It was a complete PR nightmare after months of growing goodwill toward the company, and led to them extending the event to a wider area within the city, while also offering refunds for the $20 tickets and $100 of in-game currency as compensation. Of course, that hasn’t stopped a California man from filing a lawsuit for both actual and punitive damages including travel costs and asking for it to be deemed a class action. Considering that people will have paid much more than the compensation offered, that might be fair.
As a consequence of all of this, Niantic are postponing similar events in Europe that were due to happen in early August. These are the Safari Zone events in Copenhagen and Prague on 5th August, and Stockholm and Amsterdam on 12th August. They’ve been pushed back until later in the autumn, but other events are unaffected.
The statement reads:
In order to guarantee the best possible gameplay experience for European Trainers, we have decided to postpone the events in Europe scheduled for August 5 (Copenhagen and Prague) and August 12 (Stockholm and Amsterdam) until a date later in the Fall. No other scheduled events are affected including the event scheduled for Yokohama, Japan on August 14 and the events scheduled for September 16 in France, Spain, and Germany.
We apologize for any inconvenience and hope you understand that our priority is to ensure a great experience for Pokémon GO Trainers in Europe and around the world. Trainers that might have questions regarding the Safari Zone events should visit the help center.
As a special surprise, we understand that some Pokémon that are rarely seen in Europe will be appearing soon in certain European cities for a brief time. Keep your eyes peeled!
Stay tuned for more information, we will update you as soon as we have the new dates.
Source: Pokémon Go, Chicago Tribune
