The recent Pokémon GO Fest in Chicago's Grant Park may have marked the introduction of Legendary monsters to the game, but it was marred by technical issues which created quite a bit of frustration for the thousands of people who went along for the day.
Niantic was forced to offer refunds and in-game rewards to pacify those in attendance, and now company CEO John Hanke has posted an update to explain exactly what happened:
Technical issues with our game software caused client crashes and interfered with gameplay for some users. The gameplay issue was resolved with a server configuration change and the crashes were also addressed for many but not all users. A more protracted problem was caused by oversaturation of the mobile data networks of some network providers. This caused many attendees to be unable to access Pokémon GO or other Internet services. Network congestion also led to a login issue which affected some users able to access the Internet. This latency-related login issue was addressed with a second Niantic configuration change.
On the pure network access issue, we provided detailed estimates on attendance and required data throughput per user to our event partner who worked with the major carriers to allow them to plan for adequate coverage. Some carriers deployed Cellular on Wheels (COWs) to extend their capacity. In other cases the providers deemed them unnecessary based on other infrastructure already in place at the site. Users reported different levels of success with these providers. Wifi was enabled by one provider as a solution which helped some users but not all. Sprint was onsite as an official partner, deployed a COW, and their network was busy but held up well. Although many players were able to play normally for the majority of the day, many were not, and based on that we made a number of adjustments to the event plan.
Despite the issues, Hanke thought the event was a success, largely due to the efforts of the attendees themselves:
As people filed out of the event into surrounding areas where the cellular network was less overburdened, they were able to play together and to capture Legendary Pokémon ‘in the wild.’ It was inspiring to watch Trainers band together with their friends and to enjoy the beautiful evening together despite the struggles of the day. That spirit extended well into the night and resumed again the next day with clusters of Pokémon GO Trainers roaming the city battling Legendary Pokémon throughout the day Sunday. Together, from late Saturday to Sunday, Trainers in downtown Chicago participated in more than 69,000 Raid Battles and captured more than 7.7 million Pokémon, including more than 440,000 Legendary Pokémon. It was an amazing sight to behold and is a testament to the love of the game and to the bonds these Trainers share with one another.
The technical issues which occurred will no doubt help Niantic plan better for future events, but will players be as keen to attend when there's the danger that it could all go horribly wrong? Time will tell.
[source nianticlabs.com]
Comments 18
Hm...
What went wrong? It had Pokemon.
Everything went wrong, apparently.
So it wasn't them, it was the telephone provider, course it was!
It probably didn't help that there were zero activities at the end, one checkpoint to shove 20k people through, etc. If only connection problems could have been half the issue.
Good for Niantic... I'm personally having a blast hatching eggs and joining up with others in my city trying to take down Articuno (who has managed to escape me TWICE now! He's real tough to catch... oh if only I could put him to sleep first like in the main games )
It's that John Hanke in the photo above? Kudos to him for keeping a straight face while hearing out that whiny neckbeards complaints. I don't think I'd be able to handle it.
I'm glad those that attended still had fun. In that regard it's very much like my entire experience with the game. Technical problems galore, not what Niantic said they would deliver, but I manage to have fun when I play.
That doesn't excuse them for. It fixing the single player experience and instead thinking up more ways to throw things in for multiplayer enjoyment only
I love the fact they promote 440,000 legendaries caught when everybody that attended got a free pass on catching all the legendaries they wanted in the area. I try and catch Lugia with the absolute Max difficulty of catching and I get to run all over town trying my best to catch something that I'm probably will never be able to do.
Based on the stories I've heard from various people who had gone to Go Fest, it sounds like Sprint users ultimately most of the time could access it, as mentioned in the article, while everyone else had issues due to the over saturation of mobile users.
This is one of the few times I get what Niantic is talking about, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc, they all refused to bring mobile cell towers because they believed they could handle it, and at the end of the day that was a huge mistake on their part. Niantic was mostly prepared for the event on their side of things from what I've at least heard. This is the only time over the past year, I've sincerely felt bad for John Hanke and Niantic, they tried to do something really cool to get people hyped up for Pokemon Go, but due to outside factors they couldn't control, it all got messed up.
Of course Sprint's network held up well, only a fraction of attendees were likely using Sprint compared to other carriers at all!
It's kind of pathetic we're still using LTE cellular at all.....VZW/ATT are solely to blame for that. We had WiMax and they pigeonholed it to be cheap to buy backward compatible hardware in large part because that's what China was using and that made it cheaper gear. WiMax 2 would give us universal WiFi EVERYWHERE....and possibly end the need for wired internet once and for all short of as backhaul for the WiFi, and those two made sure it doesn't see the light of day in the US despite being an Intel product (they actually use it in parts of Russia, I've heard, and it works wonderfully...)
Yet they get a black eye from events like this, and still don't understand where they went so wrong.
best part of this pic is buddy cant even put his phone down while talking to a real human its like a safe guard or something
"How fitting it is, that the new Pokémon GO boom reminded players that it was exactly how they remember it: buggy." (common joke in the net as of late)
Between Legendaries being a timed exclusive (which would get me to boo, even without knowing of the actual boos that were heard), the stupid reward for defending a gym (4+ days = 50 coins) and the game still being buggy, it's clear by now that Niantic cares more about the money they get from microtransactions (which I'm ashamed to have actually spent) than about making the game enjoyable and rewarding.
All users get instead are stingy Pokéstops, a ridiculously small bag, very few Pokéballs at hand and a ridiculously high margin of error for catching a Pokémon.
Zubat? Expect to lose more than five Pokéballs on that thing. 600+ CP-high Pokémon? Good luck.
Yes, I know Pokémon GO experience is being given a boost around the world. And thank God for that. But thing is, that should be the standard. Am I asking too much? Given my experience is being a fair bit better now than it usually is (and I'm able to train and evolve Pokémon with the same ease I see in a mainline game, thanks to the doubled candies), my answer is no, it's a reasonable request.
But this won't last, and we'll be back to snail-speed progression when we least expect it.
@Shugo it really has everything to do with attitude. Sure, things didn't go as planned, they had a GREAT time because their primary reason for going wasn't "Stand in a chicken cage and catch Pokémon". They talked to people, experienced the game in another city and got to be part of a disastrous but unique event. And when the event ended and they got into the city then things were incredibly social and fun.
It really seems the people most angry and vindictive are people who didn't even attend.
"Hanke thought the event was a success"
He's wrong.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Whats wrong with Pokemon?
At least you people have a chance to catch legendary pokemon on these events.
Here in Norway, Europe we will never ever see nor catch one, as we will never get these events here.
I like walking around the city with my friend who plays this and myself (whose played all handheld mainline games and not this). He usually asks me what types are effective against such-and-such. I find it unique that we each have different approaches to Pokemon. It's the game that convinced my friend to purchase a portable charger for his long walks and convinced me to pick up my 3DS
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