The creator of Pokemon Go is reportedly being sued by about 20 to 30 people, for the disaster that was its recent Pokemon Go fest in Chicago. According to reports, a Chicago-based attorney, Thomas Zimmerman, was first contacted by a man named Jonathan Norton, who was later joined by “20 or 30” other attendees of the Pokemon Go Fest.
Norton, a resident of California, had flown to Chicago to attend the Pokemon Go Fest. However, like all the other attendees at the fest, the game went down for him too. Niantic had earlier blamed cellular network congestion for the crashes, but the company’s own servers also had a role to play. “He paid to fly out for the festival, and had to wait for several hours in line, just like most everybody else in order to get in,” Zimmerman told Polygon.
Further, Zimmerman told Polygon that the lawsuit seeks refund for people’s travel expenses for travelling to Chicago. “Most of the people came from out of state, many people from other countries — I talked to someone who flew in from Japan,” he said.
Niantic’s Pokemon Go Fest went down almost from the word go, leading to mass uproar at the event. The company tried to ease congestion by extending the radius where people could play, but in the end, Niantic had to refund ticket prices for registered attendees, while also giving them $100 in Pokecoins. Most importantly, the company simply gave away the legendary Pokemon Lugia, which was supposed to show up in a much awaited raid battle at the event.