Pokemon festival refund after mobile signal failure
UP TO 20,000 people who attended a Pokémon Go festival in Chicago have been offered refunds after a string of technical glitches prevented them playing the online game.
John Hanke, chief exedutive of the game’s developer Niantic Inc, was booed when he took to the stage at Chicago’s Grant Park to address thousands of Pokémon enthusiasts, some of whom had paid up to $400 (£300) for tickets.
The fans shouted “fix our game” and “we can’t play” at the beleaguered tech boss, having spent much of the weekwho end failing to catch any Pokémon due to a lack of mobile internet signal.
While no official attendance figures were available, organisers had planned for as many as 20,000 Pokémon players and “trainers” at the festival.
John Haberkorn, a member of the Official Pokémon Go 40 Club, an international online community of highlevel players, told the Chicago Tribune: “The excitement has just been drastically minimised because of what we’ve experienced today.”
Mike Quigley, Niantic’s chief marketing officer, tried to placate irritated players by announcing that everyone scanned a code when they entered the park would automatically receive the legendary Pokémon Lugia, a rare and powerful creature difficult to defeat in virtual battle and prized by the game’s followers.
Niantic says Pokémon Go has been downloaded 750million times since it was launched. The augmented reality game that uses GPS to locate, capture, battle and train virtual creatures was introduced in the US in July 2016.
A spokesman for Niantic said those who registered for the event would get a refund for the $20 (£15) tickets and $100 (£76) in credits for use of the app.