The Pokemon GO Fest was a disaster, but no one is feeling the after effects of the ill-fated event more than Niantic CEO John Hanke.
The Chicago festival saw 20,000 Pokemon GO players facing technical glitches, server issues and other assorted problems as they tried to play the game and capture Lugia, the first to legendary Pokemon to be introduced into the game. The issues led to organisers offering refunds being offered to attendees along with $100 of in-game PokeCoins, while Lugia was automatically added to accounts, too.
The problems faced by the event led to attendees revolting against Niantic and, unfortunately, the presenter who had the task of trying to keep the festival ticking despite the devastating technical issues plaguing it. When John Hanke took to the Pokemon GO Fest stage, the crowd erupted into a chorus of boos and chants of “fix the game” while the CEO tried to awkwardly continue with his speech.
Watch the moment below:
lol, people booing at Niantic CEO John Hanke on stage at Pokemon Go Fest because the game is unplayable for many attendees pic.twitter.com/QFZQTiMRxr
— Wario64 (@Wario64) July 22, 2017
The presenter was also targeted by attendees, with one player making the ridiculous decision to throw a bottle of water at her while she addressed the audience on stage. Fortunately, the bottle missed.
#PokemonGOFest is a MESS, but don't throw shit at the presenter just doing their job, you dumb nerds. pic.twitter.com/fVhdt5hNrB
— Liam (@liamrobertson.bsky) (@Doctor_Cupcakes) July 22, 2017
The Pokemon GO Fest inadvertently did a good job of summarising the life of the mobile game thus far, which has also experienced notable and frustrating technical issues despite attracting a wide audience of players. Unfortunately for those who travelled out to the Chicago event, these problems led to them not being able to catch many Pokemon, as Niantic continued to tinker with the app in a desperate bid to get it up and running. Hopefully they’ll be more prepared if they hope to stage the festival again next year.
