A last-minute decision by organisers to cancel the long-standing tradition of free wi-fi at the annual Comic-Con pop culture convention may have hobbled the global phenomenon Pokemon Go.
Despite an expectation that the 180,000-strong Comic-Con crowd would be invaded by clusters of Pokemon Go players chasing virtual critters on their mobile phones, they were mercifully spared the sort of Pokemon-invades-life moments which have occurred elsewhere.
Since its launch, the "augmented reality" game has swept the globe.
"Free wi-fi" inside the San Diego Convention Centre has been a long tradition at Comic-Con, but an email to attendees send just days before the convention began confirmed it would not be available this year.
No official reason has been cited, though sources said a fear that Pokemon Go players would simply congest the network for others while playing the game was among a number of concerns.
Heightened security measures in place in the wake of a number of terrorist incidents worldwide at public events may also have been a factor.
Niantic, the company which owns Pokemon Go, did have a presence at the convention and while some convention-goers were dressed as the characters from the game, notably its original star Pikachu, it struggled to stand out in a dense crowds of big-ticket pop culture brands.
Even so at the annual Comic-Con, which is held in San Diego, it would have been an impossible task to outshine the Warner Bros owned DC Comics, which is the event's loudest and most prominent presence.
Even in a year where many major studios stayed away, DC Comics and its rival, Disney-owned Marvel, managed to fill the echo chamber with teasers, trailers and A-list stars.
Among the absentees were 20th Century Fox, Legendary Pictures and Lionsgate, leaving Warner Bros and Marvel to dominate proceedings.
The four-day event is a major date in the Hollywood calendar and is used by film studios and television networks to launch key series in the hope of generating buzz with fans.
While the actual algorithm is impossible to measure, shows which leave the convention on a wave of "buzz" generally go onto successfully launch onto the pop culture landscape.One of the major events of the convention was Warner Bros double whammy of new trailers for both its Justice League ensemble feature and its standalone Wonder Woman film.
Wonder Woman, in particular, was a key title, as the studio was also marking the 75th anniversary of the iconic comic-book character, created by William Moulton Marston in 1941.
What made the audience reaction to the two trailers particularly important for Warner Bros is that they come after the studio took a bruising from fans who felt its Batman vs Superman blockbuster was too dark and too much of a departure from the established canon.
The poor reaction to that film also impacted its box office total. The film took in $US870 million ($1164 million), which at face value seems immense but fell short of the studio's expectation of a $US1 billion-plus ($1.34-billion) haul.
The good news for Warner Bros is that the reaction to both trailers was overwhelmingly positive.
The pop culture website i09 declared the Wonder Woman trailer to be "even better than we could have imagined".
The four-day convention closed on Sunday afternoon having pushed almost 180,000 people through its turnstiles.
Among the Australians in attendance were DC Legends of Tomorrow and Prison Break star Dominic Purcell, Blindspot star Sullivan Stapleton and Miranda Otto, who is headlining the reboot 24: Legacy for 20th Century Fox.
Another Australian making a splash was rising star Keiynan Lonsdale, who is best known in Australia as one of the stars of Dance Academy.
24-year-old Lonsdale has joined the cast of the CW hit The Flash playing Wally West, a.k.a. Kid Flash.
Also among the attendees were Aussie actresses Bella Heathcote, who stars in the series The Man in the High Castle, and Rose McIver, from the Warner Bros series iZombie.
The convention was, broadly speaking, a quiet affair, with the 180,000-odd crowd not getting into too much trouble.'
The San Diego Police Department had an expanded presence at the convention, and police snipers were seen on rooftops in the city's "Gaslamp" quarter, where the crowds were mostly clustered.
