‘Pokémon Go’ In-Game Bonuses Extended After Chicago Event Fiasco

The in-game event bonuses in “Pokémon Go” are staying much longer than what was previously announced. Get more details below.

Something good is coming out of the problematic Pokémon Go Fest last weekend. Apparently, Niantic has decided to extend the time that the in-game event bonuses will be available to players. The bonuses were supposed to last until Monday at 5 p.m. PDT, but now Trainers can have access to them until later this week.

Extended Bonuses

According to Eurogamer, Niantic is extending the availability of the generous in-game bonuses until this Friday. This means, Pokémon Trainers will have more time to avail these bonuses. The event bonuses include double candy for every caught Pokémon, double XP, double Stardust and reduced distances for hatching eggs and for buddy Pokémon. Also part of this promotion is the increased spawn rates of Pokémon in the wild. With the extension, players can take advantage of these until later this week.

Originally, the bonuses were supposed to last for just 48 hours as part of the Pokémon Go Fest in Chicago over the weekend. Since the event suffered technical problems, John Hanke’s team opted to extend the bonuses for a couple more days. The team also released Legendary Pokémon Articuno and Lugia; both are currently appearing in Raid Battles. It isn’t clear if they’ll continue spawning long-term.

READ: Chicago Pokémon Go Fest attendees given ticket refunds

Pokémon Go Fest Debacle

Niantic’s gesture is said to be its way of asking for apology to the disappointing Pokémon Go Fest. Around 20,000 people from all around the world reportedly traveled to Chicago’s Grant Park for the event last Saturday, as pointed out by Business Insider. Unfortunately, server outages and poor cell service turned the celebration into a disaster.

The event was so regrettable that Niantic did not just issue refunds to ticket holders, the company also gave each ticket holder $100 worth of in-game credits. It was reported earlier that the tickets to the event sold out in under 10 minutes. Each ticket was sold for $20, but some Trainers had to pay more to purchase some off the resale market.

Several announcements were made at the event when players started to express their frustration over the persistent technical problems. “Obviously they can’t completely make it up to all the people who have come out to Chicago today, but they want to extend the fact that they’re extremely apologetic and unhappy with the process and the results,” a spokesperson was quoted as saying by Polygon. “So hopefully this is something that we will never see replicated again, learn from this and move on.”

READ: “Pokémon Go” app update adds new icons, abilities & bug fixes

Niantic’s Public Apology

Niantic also issued an official apology on the Pokémon Go website following the first Pokémon Go Fest. “Today at Pokémon GO Fest in Chicago, technical issues created problems for a large number of players attending the event. From everyone at Niantic, we apologize to all of the Trainers who came out to Pokémon GO Fest today.”

“Although we were able to solve many of the technical issues, we were not able to offer every attendee a great experience,” Niantic continued. "We appreciate the patience of all the Trainers who joined us in Chicago this weekend. We will strive to make sure our experiences are of the highest quality going forward."