It's all fun and games until the servers go down

The legendary birds have finally been unlocked in Pokémon GO, but not everything is going too well for Niantic right now. Last weekend's GO Fest in Chicago was a disaster. Server issues made it so Pokémon GO players couldn't actually play the game the way it was meant to be played, and even Niantic CEO John Hanke was booed when he tried to take the stage to apologize. While the developer is certainly making up for the faux pas with a free Lugia and $100 in Poké Coins for festival attendees along with refunding the $10 ticket fee, not everyone is accepting Niantic's apology. A Chicago-based attorney has confirmed to Polygon that a lawsuit has been filed seeking to reimburse travel expenses for GO players who had to pay more than just the $10 to attend last weekend's event.

Thomas Zimmerman told Polygon that twenty or thirty other complainants have joined the initial suit and are seeking class action status. The game's server issues prevented GO Fest attendees from catching the rare Pokémon that Niantic promised would spawn, amounting to false advertising. With the unkept promises Niantic made about the festival, plaintiff Jonathan Norton feels that many attendees wouldn't have made the trip had they known the festival wasn't going to provide the experience that was both promised and expected.

While Niantic did offer in-game compensation to attendees for GO not working properly during the festival and extended the amount of time rare Pokémon could be caught in Chicago, the company has yet to offer to pay for travel expenses for anyone who made a cross-country or even international journey. The developer has declined to comment on the situation, stating that "Niantic does not comment on pending legal matters."