Pokémon GO Fest was indisputably not a success. At the very least, it wasn't the success Niantic and the community originally envisioned it to be. Over the past few days, many media outlets have written articles or made YouTube videos on their perception of the event. Verizon has even issued a statement regarding their customer's service (or lack thereof) during the event. PNN would like to formally make their own review as a news outlet and Pokémon GO fan independent of Niantic's influence.
First off, app crashes. App crashes were primarily an iOS issue, and, according to Niantic's spokesperson, an issue of Niantic's own servers and / or programming. Certainly the crashes happened much more at Grant Park, but they have happened to our correspondents outside of the festival grounds. One of them even experienced another crash yesterday (not in the Chicago area) while walking towards an Articuno Raid. Based on that, this is a flaw in the latest update or the game's servers, and the fault of Niantic.
Secondly, the poor cell service. Unless one was a Sprint-user, the game could rarely load. According to Trainer Tips' information, Sprint was the only cell provider to send mobile cell towers to Grant Park. T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T declined Niantic's request, estimating that their existing cell towers would be sufficient. Clearly, they were not. Obviously, we do not know the content of the conversations between the companies and Niantic, but this issue is the fault of both.
Niantic should have pushed harder and more vehemently demanded the extra service. However, the companies cannot have never been involved in an outdoor concert or other such festival. They should've known that at least 15,000 phones being used in a small area cannot be supported by only regular towers. Verizon has come out and said that attendees were able to load apps like YouTube when unable to load Pokémon GO. From our boots-on-the-ground's experience (as Sprint customers), webpages and other apps sometimes wouldn't load when the game would not also.
Thirdly, Niantic's livestream. The GO Fest livestream was severely delayed, and showed only the GO Fest promotional image for the majority of the time. With everything else going on, it is understandable why Niantic wasn't focused on the livestream. And with the unsatisfactory service, the stream may have been unable to be broadcasted.
Another problem was some of the things caught on the stream. The dysfunctional bar graphs showing the Challenge Window progress were shown many times. And it was clear from the individual showings that Niantic had edited them to make the progress look much more successful than it was (understandably, given the problems logging in). Another was the fan-cam Gym battles. Trainers could plug their phones in to screens to share their Gym battles at the Team Lounges. Unfortunately, some Trainers had Pokémon named with expletives. Some of these expletives were broadcast out on stream. Cameramen were put in other uncomfortable positions when lag-riddled and frozen games were shown to the world.
Fourthly is Niantic's handling of the rewards. Some have scrutinized Niantic's phrasing and "rigging" of the rewards. The event host's script and Niantic's Legendary-release blog post did make it sound like everything worked out with the Challenge Windows. Niantic, although they did own up to their lackluster event, didn't outright say, "We know you were unable to play today, so all bonuses are going to be unlocked and everyone checked in here will receive Lugia instead of attempting to battle it." Honestly, it was pretty obvious that Niantic was going to release one Legendary no matter what.
Fifth, let's talk about Niantic's compensation. They did the right thing by offering refunds for tickets and giving out $100 worth of free PokéCoins. The detail-bearing email has been sent out to the email associated with your in-game account. All refund forms will have to be submitted by 11:59 P.M. (CDT) on Sunday, August 27, 2017. All refunds will be processed by September 1, 2017. Also, the free Lugia and the 14,500 PokéCoins will be distributed within the next seven business days.
Sixth, is the overwhelming negativity towards GO Fest (and Pokémon GO in general) coming from certain media sources. Verlisify, for example, is a Pokémon-based YouTube channel. He covers mostly the main-series games (and does a great job of it, by the way), although has been mercilessly slamming GO Fest recently. He is entitled to his opinion, although it is overly unfair to the Pokémon GO community and Niantic. Verlisify did not attend GO Fest and doesn't play Pokémon GO, as he seems to view it as a dead game. In all fairness, Niantic did not do a good job with GO Fest (as this article clearly proves).
But saying Niantic completely failed at GO Fest is inaccurate. They clearly learned something important for the Safari Zone events and all other future real-world events. In the end, the event was not bad after it was extended physically and chronologically. After it all, we did get Legendaries (Lugia and Articuno) and all the bonuses. So, after it all, is Niantic responsible? Yes. Are they completely responsible? No.
Finally, we would like to address something very important. Everything reviewed in this article is PNN's, and furthermore this reporter's, opinion. This article does not have to be agreed with by yourself. We do try to be independent in controversies, and we do not side with pro-Niantic people or the extreme haters in the GO Fest matter. We have no problem with the "Verlisify" channel or his right to an opinion. This article is written by a Sprint-user, so it may be a but more optimistic about GO Fest than those on AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. If this article offended anyone, we apologize.
First off, app crashes. App crashes were primarily an iOS issue, and, according to Niantic's spokesperson, an issue of Niantic's own servers and / or programming. Certainly the crashes happened much more at Grant Park, but they have happened to our correspondents outside of the festival grounds. One of them even experienced another crash yesterday (not in the Chicago area) while walking towards an Articuno Raid. Based on that, this is a flaw in the latest update or the game's servers, and the fault of Niantic.
Secondly, the poor cell service. Unless one was a Sprint-user, the game could rarely load. According to Trainer Tips' information, Sprint was the only cell provider to send mobile cell towers to Grant Park. T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T declined Niantic's request, estimating that their existing cell towers would be sufficient. Clearly, they were not. Obviously, we do not know the content of the conversations between the companies and Niantic, but this issue is the fault of both.
Niantic should have pushed harder and more vehemently demanded the extra service. However, the companies cannot have never been involved in an outdoor concert or other such festival. They should've known that at least 15,000 phones being used in a small area cannot be supported by only regular towers. Verizon has come out and said that attendees were able to load apps like YouTube when unable to load Pokémon GO. From our boots-on-the-ground's experience (as Sprint customers), webpages and other apps sometimes wouldn't load when the game would not also.
Thirdly, Niantic's livestream. The GO Fest livestream was severely delayed, and showed only the GO Fest promotional image for the majority of the time. With everything else going on, it is understandable why Niantic wasn't focused on the livestream. And with the unsatisfactory service, the stream may have been unable to be broadcasted.
Another problem was some of the things caught on the stream. The dysfunctional bar graphs showing the Challenge Window progress were shown many times. And it was clear from the individual showings that Niantic had edited them to make the progress look much more successful than it was (understandably, given the problems logging in). Another was the fan-cam Gym battles. Trainers could plug their phones in to screens to share their Gym battles at the Team Lounges. Unfortunately, some Trainers had Pokémon named with expletives. Some of these expletives were broadcast out on stream. Cameramen were put in other uncomfortable positions when lag-riddled and frozen games were shown to the world.
Fourthly is Niantic's handling of the rewards. Some have scrutinized Niantic's phrasing and "rigging" of the rewards. The event host's script and Niantic's Legendary-release blog post did make it sound like everything worked out with the Challenge Windows. Niantic, although they did own up to their lackluster event, didn't outright say, "We know you were unable to play today, so all bonuses are going to be unlocked and everyone checked in here will receive Lugia instead of attempting to battle it." Honestly, it was pretty obvious that Niantic was going to release one Legendary no matter what.
Fifth, let's talk about Niantic's compensation. They did the right thing by offering refunds for tickets and giving out $100 worth of free PokéCoins. The detail-bearing email has been sent out to the email associated with your in-game account. All refund forms will have to be submitted by 11:59 P.M. (CDT) on Sunday, August 27, 2017. All refunds will be processed by September 1, 2017. Also, the free Lugia and the 14,500 PokéCoins will be distributed within the next seven business days.
Sixth, is the overwhelming negativity towards GO Fest (and Pokémon GO in general) coming from certain media sources. Verlisify, for example, is a Pokémon-based YouTube channel. He covers mostly the main-series games (and does a great job of it, by the way), although has been mercilessly slamming GO Fest recently. He is entitled to his opinion, although it is overly unfair to the Pokémon GO community and Niantic. Verlisify did not attend GO Fest and doesn't play Pokémon GO, as he seems to view it as a dead game. In all fairness, Niantic did not do a good job with GO Fest (as this article clearly proves).
But saying Niantic completely failed at GO Fest is inaccurate. They clearly learned something important for the Safari Zone events and all other future real-world events. In the end, the event was not bad after it was extended physically and chronologically. After it all, we did get Legendaries (Lugia and Articuno) and all the bonuses. So, after it all, is Niantic responsible? Yes. Are they completely responsible? No.
Finally, we would like to address something very important. Everything reviewed in this article is PNN's, and furthermore this reporter's, opinion. This article does not have to be agreed with by yourself. We do try to be independent in controversies, and we do not side with pro-Niantic people or the extreme haters in the GO Fest matter. We have no problem with the "Verlisify" channel or his right to an opinion. This article is written by a Sprint-user, so it may be a but more optimistic about GO Fest than those on AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. If this article offended anyone, we apologize.