Niantic won’t have a big centralized bash for Pokemon Go Fest 2021, but it is bringing back an in-person experience on a smaller scale through City Activations. These real-world celebrations will be coming to 22 cities in the U.S., Europe and New Zealand. They will be held one day only from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 17.
“These are actually going to be very different,” said Michael Steranka, director of “Pokemon Go” product marketing. “If you’ve been to Chicago, Yokohama and Dortmund, we did large park takeovers and builds. Because of the pandemic and what not, we wanted to approach it in a different way.”
He said, “It’s definitely a much lighter touch. The intent is to create locations that players can attend.”
The City Activations will focus on real-world photo-ops, but the event will be staffed across each city, meaning Niantic is putting some money into it. City Activations are expected to draw in players from surrounding areas, so the company is asking those who are interested to register for the event in order to avoid overcrowding. You can register here.
THE 22 CITIES GETTING IN-PERSON EVENTS
The cities involved include the following:
United States: San Francisco; Denver; Atlanta; Chicago; Indianapolis; New York City; Seattle; Washington; Nashville, Tennessee; and Austin, Texas.
Europe: Linz, Austria; Dresden, Germany; Essen, Germany; Hamburg, Germany; Sevilla; Spain; Paris; Warsaw, Poland; Bristol, U.K; Edinburgh, U.K.; Liverpool, U.K.; and London.
Asia-Pacific: Auckland, New Zealand
Why did Niantic pick these specific U.S. cities? Steranka said organizers wanted to hold the events in locales that can accommodate different regions. They didn’t want to concentrate all the City Activations in one part of America. San Francisco was chosen for California for several reasons. “It’s where our headquarters is based and it has a large player population,” he said.
The other criteria was the opening and willingness of cities. “We worked with local governments and worked to make sure these events are safe,” Steranka said. “The local authorities are fully on board.”
As for COVID-19 precautions, Steranka said Niantic is following the guidelines for each city and region. In the U.S., they aren’t requiring proof of vaccination or a COVID test to take part. He emphasized that City Activations will have a “light touch” and the events will be spread out, taking advantage of the sights and culture of the selected municipalities.
A CLOSER LOOK AT SAN FRANCISCO
In San Francisco, the play area runs through downtown. Steranka said it will stretch from Union Square to the Embarcadero. City Activations aren’t a guided experience. They are more free-form and about discovery as players explore the City by the Bay and encounter moments of whimsy. Players will see real-life displays such as a Charizard wing at the side of the building, Steranka said.
These displays are at the heart of the City Activations and Niantic will staff them with personnel so they don’t get swarmed or damaged as players take pictures to share on social media. The art installations won’t have a direct connection to the questline of the day. They aren’t there to stop traffic or cause hazard. In addition, Niantic isn’t introducing any temporary Pokestops. They won’t have be any PvP tournaments in San Francisco, the product marketing director said, but “PvP fans will find some strong Pokemon appearing in the wild as part of Pokemon Go fest.”
Players won’t find any merch booths. In addition, Steranka wasn’t able to confirm anything about Pokemon spawn rates for City Activations. There weren’t wont be any Niantic-supplied amenities such as bathrooms, food trucks or additional cell towers.
THE REAL DRAW OF CITY ACTIVATIONS
So why go at all? These City Activations will pull in other players from around their respective regions and that in and of itself is a feat. With that many players, it creates interesting moments of play and a sense of community that’s been missing for the past few months.
Seeing other players in their Pokemon gear with phones connected to external batteries creates a feeling of belonging. It also opens up other aspects of the game. One of the interesting things is that this year’s print-at-home kits will include the blueprints for trade paddles that were seen at previous Pokemon Go Fests. Players can carry around these signs that say “looking for” and “willing to trade” and easily find a partner with the density of players. If you’re looking for that missing Unown to fill out that collection or that shiny Legendary Pokemon that completes a set, you may find it at the City Activations. Unfortunately, Pokemon Go Fest 2021 won’t have additional special trades or any bonuses like that, but players could still trade to reroll some of the non-shiny and non-Legendary Pokemon that they already have.
UPDATE: Niantic announced that there will be six Special Trades each day from 1 p.m. PDT July 16 to 11 p.m. PDT July 18. That makes City Activations even more attractive because with so many people playing in the same area, there’s a higher chance of running into people willing to trade you for that shiny variant or regional that you’re missing.
As for amenities such as food and bathrooms, Steranka said that one of the reasons that events are being held in downtown districts is that it’s a great way for players to discover the hidden gems of their backyard. “We want trainers to explore different establishments,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to reinvigorate the community” and local businesses after they went through the hardships of the pandemic.
Pokemon Go Fest 2021 could be a boost to restaurants and shops in downtown as players explore the area and look for some of the art installations for photo-ops. Interestingly enough, Steranka did mention other freebies tied to Pokemon Go Fest 2021, but he said, “We’re not able to share anything at the moment.”
USING DOWNTOWN TO THE GAME’S ADVANTAGE
The idea is to have safe and distributed gameplay. Niantic didn’t want to confine players to one corner of San Francisco. He mentioned that during last year’s Go Fest, players walked an average of 15km and Niantic wants to keep the travel around that distance for these City Activations. He said with such a widespread play space, Niantic doesn’t anticipate the need for additional infrastructure.
“That’s one of the benefits of having it downtown,” he said. With Grant Park in Chicago, it’s a different situation. The area doesn’t have a lot of connectivity and Niantic had to bring in “cell on wheels to support the amount of players on that space.” He said with players exploring all of downtown San Francisco, the existing infrastructure can naturally handle the amount of people.
With the event being so free-form and amorphous, Niantic is using the registration to get a sense of how many people will be entering the downtowns, Steranka said. Registration is free, according to the Niantic blog post, and the spots for each city are limited on a first-come, first-serve basis. But technically, anybody can go to San Francisco and check out the City Activation. If you live in San Francisco, you have a leg up because it’s in your city and you should be able to explore it. But if prospective participants from beyond can’t get registered, Niantic is urging them to not attend.
That can be a dicey proposition. The light touch of the event means that cities could see huge crowds swarming into San Francisco for the event or they could find just the right critical mass. They could see hordes of “Pokemon Go” fans wearing their favorite character T-shirts and gear or it could be the summer of 2016 all over again, when giant masses of players first checked out the game. Then again, these City Activations could have just the right amount of people at just the right time as people start to emerge from pandemic.
