Niantic announced a full refund for Pokemon Go Fest ticket holders as apology for the big server issues that have been plaguing the highly anticipated Festival since it began earlier today. But does this mean the Festival is now canceled?
No. Pokemon Go Fest was NOT canceled and the challenges worldwide still happened.
UPDATE: The challenges were met and Lugia will be appearing in 48 hours. Read more about Lugia here. It looks like the Festival is now over. Originally there were going to be raids to capture the Legendary at 6 p.m., but the Legendary is being given away to everyone who attended the festival instead. The official live stream is also offer, so it’s safe to assume that the 6 p.m. event isn’t happening. Read more here.
Original story below:
Niantic is issuing refunds for Pokemon Go Fest ticket holders because of all the issues they’ve had to deal with. They’re also getting $100 in PokeCoins. But it doesn’t look like the entire festival is canceled, according to the latest update from Niantic officials.
Due to degraded experience on overtaxed cell networks, Niantic will be offering full refunds to GO Fest ticket holders + $100 in PokeCoins.
The Chicago Tribune reported that yes, the Festival and the Challenges are still happening. Niantic later went on the live stream to discuss the issues and share that plans are still proceeding as normal.
This means we still have a chance at getting that Legendary. In order to help with this, Niantic has also lowered the challenge limits to help meet the Legendary threshold.
CONFIRMED: Niantic is manually lowering challenge limits to meet the threshold!
In addition, Niantic announced that it is extending the radius for catching unique Pokemon like Heracross and Unown to a two mile radius outside the Festival. In addition, these Pokemon will be available in the area through Monday morning.
If you’re a global player, check at 3 p.m. Central for the next challenge.
Unfortunately, despite the attempt to placate players, trainers are still very angry about what’s been happening. Earlier in the day, players chanted WE CAN’T PLAY for everyone to hear:
Chanting ‘WE CAN’T PLAY!’ #PoKemonGoFest
Niantic officials told the crowd about the three main issues plaguing the festival today: one involves a cell provider and the two other issues are on Niantic’s side. They were still working on the issue less than an hour before the 3 p.m. Challenge, which is why they decided to expand the radius for catching unique Pokemon like Heracross and Unown. You can now catch those Pokemon within a two mile radius outside of the Festival, and they’ll be available until Monday.
Every time someone from Niantic took the stage, fans weren’t happy, mostly because the news was never good. Niantic at one point was showing crowd shots, but they stopped doing that on the lie stream when the crowd shots mostly just showed angry players.
There were rumors for awhile that the entire game was canceled. It’s not, but it will be interesting to see how the rest of the festival goes. So far, things still aren’t going smoothly. On the official Niantic Twitch livestream, they tried to play Pokemon Go and demonstrate a raid battle. Unfortunately, the game crashed on the live stream and they went back to the static image for fans around the world to watch.
At one point, things even got so bad that the game itself crashed while it was being played on Niantic’s live stream. That’s not good:
When it comes to the Festival, it seems like so far, the problems are a lot bigger than the solutions.
Around 3:30 p.m Central, Niantic came back on stage again with a new update. The issues still have not been fixed. One involves a problem with a network provider. The other two issues involve Niantic bugs. One is an authentication issue and the second is an iPhone crash bug.There are some possible workarounds so you can continue to play. If you’re an AT&T customer, go to the northeast corner of the park. Some players are having success logging in and playing over there. If your network provider offers Wifi, then turn off your cellular connection and use Wifi only. Some players can get on that way.
It doesn’t sound like Niantic is close to fixing the issue, but they’re also not cancelling the event. To get your ticket refund, make sure that you scan your QR code.
In the end, all the challenges were met both worldwide and locally. The Legendary Lugia will be released worldwide with 48 hours and will automatically be given to every trainer who attended the event.
Team Mystic came in first place, which means the next legendary after Lugia will be Articuno.
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‘Pokemon Go’ Fest: Are the Festival & Challenges Canceled? [UPDATED]