Hey ppl! For this post I will only be talking about Pokémon GO, hence why I left it out of my previous post. This section will include topics such as upcoming events in the app, as well as, the disaster that was Pokémon GO Fest.
You guys want the good news or the bad news first?…….too late, bad news first.
Now Pokémon GO Fest was extremely hyped up up until the day of the event. Trainers came from far and wide (literally) to catch various Pokémon including Unown and of course some legendaries. Some people came from out of the US for this grand festival. The event started at 10am in Grant Park in Chicago with “an estimated 20,000 trainers appearing.” However, the event was plagued with one huge problem: connection issues. Everyone was having issues signing in and connecting to the app. According to Andrew Reiner from Game Informer magazine, who was on scene at the event, “Pokémon GO was unplayable for most players.” He spoke to “various players attempting to play and catch some spawning Unowns before the app crashes.” Some people were experiencing crashes every 15 seconds! Even users with Sprint networks (which was fairing better than other networks) were barely able to play. Everyone was hoping for Niantic to resolve these issues later that day but, to no avail…. The connection problems continued throughout the festivities. Boos could heard all through the park as the people flooded the Niantic stage with questions and chants. At one point, Niantic’s founder stepped on stage to quell the roaring crowds. It didn’t work. Niantic founder John Hanke tried desperately to calm the crowd by talking about the “sunny weather we were having” which only fueled the crowd’s anger…. He tried his best by explaining the issues with the app crashing and that his team were working on solving it.
The entire event ended on a sour note. The connection problems continued despite Niantic’s reassurance that it would be resolved. Recently, Hanke posted a lengthy blog offering a more complete explanation for their poor performance at the Fest. Here’s an excerpt taken from that article by Game Informer’s online staff:
“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.”
He further went on to say that:
“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…. 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….”
“…we are committed to listening to that feedback, however harsh, to improve what we do so that we can continue to build experiences that bring together people, technology, and the real world in innovative ways.”
Hanke hopes that future Pokémon GO Fests in Japan and the UK will go along much smoother. Niantic also promised to offer refunds and in-game credit to attendees. Unfortunately, the damage was done. The event left many players without hope for another great Fest. This news isn’t much of a surprise. Pokémon GO has suffered from network and connection issues since the app launched last year. However, when you hype up an event like this one, you expect Niantic to be on top of everything and ready for any sort of connection problem, especially since they had plenty of time to find ways to resolve this issue before the event began. Anyways, let’s move on to other news. Feel free to check out Game Informer’s articles online. I’ll provide the links below:
–Pokemon GO Unplayable
–Niantic’s Response
Next thing on the list is the Safari Zone event. For those trainers in Europe the Safari Zone event will begin on September 16th in France, Germany, and Spain and lead into Denmark and Sweden later in October. During this event “increased spawns of Chansey, Kangaskhan, and Larvitar will be found, as well as, higher chances of locating shiny Magikarp, shiny Pikachu, and Unown.” Players will receive a special medal during the event. Also, special EX Raid Passes will start to be distributed for the upcoming EX Raid Battles against Mewtwo.
Speaking of Mewtwo, the recent Pokémon GO Stadium event in Yokohama, Japan occurred. Last month Mewtwo when live as an official Raid Boss. Currently, there’s no word on when Mewtwo will be released internationally as of yet. Now Mewtwo can only be battled after recently defeating another legendary Raid Boss at that same gym. Those in Japan who were able to defeat Mewtwo were given 50 Premier Balls to capture it. We can expect the same outcome when Mewtwo becomes available to other nations as well.
The next piece of news involves the new set of legendary Raid Bosses: Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. The time frame for the 3 legendary birds and Lugia has ended for now… I unfortunately didn’t have the time nor the manpower to take them on, so I missed out on all of them…. I do have hope that they will be made available to us again at some point in the future. Now onto our current legendaries. Beginning on August 31st-September 30th trainers will run into Raikou as a Raid Boss in the US, Entei in Africa and Europe, and Suicune in Asia and Australia. On September 30th they will rotate with Entei being in the US and so forth until October 31st where the last rotation will occur with Suicune, thus giving everyone a fair chance to battle and catch each one. EX Raid Passes are also being distributed “as part of a field test where Niantic is to be testing eligibility, frequency, times and locations which will be fluctuating during the test.”
There was also a rumor going around that Niantic has plans for including Generation 3 Pokémon to the app some time in the future. Not much else is known about this but I will try researching to see if I can find more info. So that about does it for this post. Stay tuned for more news updates. Thanks for reading my content.
*P.S.: I want to send good wishes and support to everyone (including family and friends) along the east coast of the US, the Caribbean and anyone around the Gulf coast dealing with Hurricane Irma, as well as, the other 2 hurricanes. Stay safe and prepared.
*References:
bulbapedia.net
serebii.net
gameiformer.com
*Images used are not mine and are only there for reference.
Poke-Navi 
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