The First-Ever Pokémon Go Festival Sounds Like It Was an Absolute Disaster

The first-ever Pokémon Go fest took place this past weekend in Chicago. It did not go well. At all.

pokemon go fest
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Image via Getty/Daniel Boczarski

pokemon go fest

The first-ever Pokémon Go Fest took place this past Saturday in Chicago. By all accounts—or at least the accounts we've seen— it totally sucked. Visitors who made the trek to the Windy City were reportedly quite pissed about the fact that they were unable to play the former viral sensation due to a number of glitches and server errors. They made this known the way most large crowds make their dissatisfaction known: by booing. Loudly.

On top of the problems they had getting the game to work, some attendees had to wait up to two hours just to get into the damn place.

Niantic Labs, the game's developer and festival sponsor, trotted out a spokesperson toward the end of the event to issue an apology to a small gathering of media. "Obviously they can’t completely make it up to all the people who have come out to Chicago today, but they want to extend the fact that they’re extremely apologetic and unhappy with the process and the results," the spokesperson said. "So hopefully this is something that we will never see replicated again. Learn from this and move on.”

The same rep also spoke to Polygon, telling them, "Just know that the staff here are pretty horrified with the results, so they want to make good as fast as possible."

On that note, Niantic offered amends in the form of $100 of in-game currency, as well as a full, real-life refund for anyone who had purchased the $20 wristband necessary to get into the festival.

Can't blame Ja Rule for this one.

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