Niantic Addresses Pokemon Go Community Concerns And Offers More Go Fest 2022 Details
Pokemon Go has always been a game meant to be played outside. Developer Niantic is eager to remind players of this and even more eager to remind everyone that outdoor Go Fests are happening in Seattle, Berlin, and Sapporo in the coming months. We spoke with Pokemon Go’s director of global live events Humberto Kam recentlyabout why now is the time to take Pokemon Go outside again, even with lingering COVID concerns, and Niantic shared a presentation doubling down on why now is the time to go back outside to catch Pokemon.
Niantic founder John Hanke and Pokemon Go’s director of live product, Michael Steranka, were on hand to talk about returning to live events, share optimism that this year will mark a return to the excitement the game appreciated when it launched in 2016, and remind that playing social games outside has always been a core Niantic value.
Hanke also reminisced and commiserated about the past. The 2017 Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago was the first the company ever held on that kind of scale and there is no sugar-coating what happened--it did not go well.
«It was a tough learning experience for us,» Hanke said about how the game was not working for the majority of the event and it wasn’t until the afternoon that players were able to finally explore the city and catch Pokemon.
The Pokemon Go Fest events held in 2018 and 2019 went more smoothly, and though the company held a print-at-home Fest event in 2020 necessitated by the pandemic, Hanke said it was just not quite the same. Hanke called it, «A pale shadow of the real event, but it was what we had.»
Last year, Niantic took baby steps to return Pokemon Go to in-person events by holding community days and smaller events, and then held a larger Safari Zone event in
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