Niantic held the very first (and perhaps last) Pokémon Go Fest this weekend just gone in Grant Park, Chicago and it did not go as well as planned. Connection issues abounded, Pokémon couldn't be captured, battles stalled or timed out and many hundreds of players had a boring and frustrating time.
Pokémon Go Fest was supposed to be the first annual celebration of Pokémon Go's success, bringing together thousands of players into a single location to earn rewards, find unique Pokémon and ultimately take on one of the first Legendary monsters to be featured in the game. It was supposed to cap off a series of big updates to the game which have been mostly well received. However, problematic software and hardware lead to a day that was far from perfect.
To celebrate the clusterfail that was the Pokémon Go Fest event, Youtuber BoBVids put together a solid supercut of all the most cringe and disappointing moments from the event. It showcases technical issues at the local level with sound and video dropping out, poor live-stream editing that holds the camera feed on unsuspecting hosts, microphone problems, a myriad of connection issues and many chants from the crowd demanding that Niantic fix the game and give them refunds for their investment in it.
While Niantic and its hosting staff did a solid job of soldiering through and trying to keep the mood elevated, Niantic ultimately capitulated and promised to refund everyone who attended their ticket price and would give out $100 worth of Pokécoins to every one of their accounts.
Not exactly what Niantic was hoping for with the event, but considering the game has earned it more than a billion dollar since its inception, we're sure it can easily foot the bill.
