Pokémon GO Fest Disaster Leads to More Events Being Delayed

Niantic has gotten themselves into a bit of a mess regarding their hit game Pokémon GO recently. The company hosted a fan fest in Chicago earlier this month that ended up being a complete disaster.

It was Niantic's first live event which likely had the company shaken after all the issues occurred, resulting in a class-action lawsuit. Now, thanks to the Chicago Fest, Niantic is delaying more European Pokémon GO Safari events to try and iron out what went wrong.

Unfortunately, Niantic found themselves vastly underprepared at the game's first year in operation celebration in Chicago. Their servers went down due to unforeseen overload and most fans couldn't even log in. Niantic immediately tried to get the problem solved, but was ultimately unsuccessful, leading to many fans being disgruntled and angry that they had paid money to be disappointed. While Niantic's servers should have been more prepared with the amount of tickets they sold (at $20+ a piece no less), it's possible to sympathize with how much of a nightmare the company must be going through right now.

Still, delaying other much anticipated Pokémon GO events might not be the best way to earn back the trust of loyal players.

In a statement on the developer's blog, Niantic said:

In order to guarantee the best possible gameplay experience for European Trainers, we have decided to postpone the events in Europe scheduled for August 5 (Copenhagen and Prague) and August 12 (Stockholm and Amsterdam) until a date later in the Fall. No other scheduled events are affected including the event scheduled for Yokohama, Japan on August 14 and the events scheduled for September 16 in France, Spain, and Germany. We apologize for any inconvenience and hope you understand that our priority is to ensure a great experience for Pokémon GO Trainers in Europe and around the world.

So it seems like Niantic wants to make sure that their players can actually use the game they're celebrating at the events this time.

Not all of the events are being delayed, however, which is odd. The events on August 5 and 12 have been rescheduled, but the ones for August 14 and 16 are still going ahead as planned. Maybe they feel like they'll have things figured out better in the 2 days between the 12th and the 14th.

Whatever the case may be, at least they haven't canceled altogether. On the plus side, Niantic really does feel bad about the delays, so much so that they hinted at that "special surprise" rare Pokémon might make appearances in some cities across Europe. The inclusion of the Pokémon not usually seen in Europe was a huge part of what trainers were excited about at these Pokémon GO Safari Events, so I'm betting we can guess which cities will be seeing these special creatures.

Hopefully, the delays help ensure that Niantic doesn't have another Pokémon GO disaster and that fans will not be let down again.