Blasting News 7-28-17 (Pokemon GO Fest)

Attendees of Pokemon Go fest may file a lawsuit against Niantic

Arnab Banerjee

Published on 28/07/2017

Pokemon Go organised a gaming fest in Chicago in order to celebrate the one year anniversary. However, things didn’t go according to the plan.

Pokemon Go, which was released in previous year created a huge hype among the mobile gamers. The number of players playing the game increased by a huge amount in few months. The game also received continuous updates which made the players engaged in the game. The popularity of the game inspired the developer, Niantic to arrange a game #Fest. The expectation around the game fest also very high. The expectations met reality when thousands of #Pokemon Go lovers reached #Chicago in order to participate in the game fest. Apart from the different states in the U.S, people from different countries all around the world also came to participate in the fest.

Did it go according to the expectation?

The expectation around the Pokemon Go fest in Chicago was really high and that encouraged a lot of people to come to the Chicago. People from various states in the U.S booked flight tickets in order to come to Chicago. However, when it came to the reality, the things didn’t go according to the plan. There are some technical difficulties which prevented many players from taking part in the game. Ultimately, due to those technical difficulties, the fest didn’t happen and it left many players disappointed.

Why are attendees planning to file a lawsuit?

Players from all around the world participated in the fest. When they came to know that the fest would not take place due to the technical failure, it left them disheartened. Apart from that, they had to pay the travel expenses as well.

In some cases, the expenses were at in larger scales. One of the attendees Jonathan Norton from California filed a lawsuit against the developer of Pokemon Go Niantic. In the lawsuit, he asked to refund his travel expenses. After, Jonathan, about 30 attendees also filed a lawsuit in order to get back the travel expenses. Thomas Zimmerman, an attorney from Chicago has picked up the case against Niantic.

According to Jonathan, a huge number of players participated in the fest coming from different parts of the U.S. and the world. Therefore, the travel expense can be very high. However, Niantic is refusing to refund the travel expenses and hence they are taking this step.

When it came to Niantic, they have apologized for the difficulties and they have also ensured that it won’t happen in the future events. When asked about the compensation, they said they are willing to award all the attendees with $100 in game purchase coins. At the same time, they will award the legendary Pokemon Lugia to all the participants. Apart from that, Niantic did not make a comment about other legal matters.