Niantic may have exploded into the mobile market, but after the first year, it has been mostly downhill for them. Their player count has dwindled considerably – by more than 90% – and players continue to be unhappy with recent updates which ignore many of the larger complaints about the game. This all came to a head last year when Niantic hosted a Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago. Unfortunately, the Fest was a complete failure. Players had constant connectivity issues because of poor cell service, the game crashed frequently, to the point where attempting to catch the rare spawns at the location was an exercise in frustration and little more. Well, many Fest goers sued, and now Niantic is going to pay.

Although the tickets for the Fest ran at only $25, many of the goers traveled far and wide to attend, rolling into their costs travel, lodging, and food cost. Niantic tried to settle the dispute amiably by basically giving the attendees a bunch of free stuff. Unfortunately for Niantic, it wasn’t enough. The company first refunded the ticket cost of all attendees, but seeing that they were still disappointed, they then gave them $100 in in-game currency. When that didn’t subdue them, they tried to pass of some legendary Pokemon onto them to call it even. Unfortunately, this is just another example of how poorly Niantic understands their own userbase, and how little they seem to care about their actual grievances.

Fans of Pokemon GO were not concerned about the cost of money. The festival was supposed to be a celebration of the game, a one-time event to enjoy the game, catch Pokemon, and meet with other players. Instead, the festival cost many attendees hundreds of dollars and denied them the ability to play the game at all. Worse, the sour experience certainly ruined the fun of networking, as all players were pretty equally angered. Other issues were rampant as well.

Though the cost of a ticket was only $25, the tickets to the event quickly sold-out, forcing many players to resort to buying them on eBay through the scalpers that snatched them up. The price of these tickets ran as high as $400, and that cost of tickets was not one that Niantic was going to reimburse, as it was through a third-party.

By May, a website is expected to go up which will allow attendees to register to gain their piece of the $1.5 million. Though this will make many happy, it definitely won’t make them happy with Niantic, who seems incapable of understanding why their players are so often disappointed.