Pokémon Go is shelling out nearly $1.6 million after people complained about 2017 event

Pokémon Go is shelling out nearly $1.6 million after people complained about 2017 event

Money is meant to appease disgruntled players

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Niantic is making a best and final offer — agreeing to pay $1.575 million to reimburse players who flew to Chicago for its Pokémon GO Fest in July 2017. Instead of finding promised Pokémon — including some rare one — players couldn't get online and had problems accessing the game. And that made for some poor Pokémon hunting.

Niantic, which developed the augmented reality game, has finally agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit, and will email those who may have been affected in May, according to TechCrunch.

Niantic's Pokémon Go Fest, meant to be a big hive of Pokémon and players, turned into a big let down last year when cell services crashed with 20,000 people trying to get online from one spot, while the game itself limped and spawned error messages instead of creatures. Some reportedly even had to wait in line to actually leave the park.

The problem? People flew from all over after nabbing one of the hard to get $25 tickets. And they weren't happy after shelling out for hotel rooms and airline tickets.

Niantic tried to make things right by reimbursing players for the entrance tickets and also giving away $100 in game currency. That may have appeased some — but clearly not others.

Pokémon Go launched in 2016 — surpassing 100 million users after just one month, with more players at one point than people who were using Twitter. Two years later and the augmented reality game is still around. A new update for Apple users even gave the game a little extra boost.

Pokémon caught using an iPhone look a little bit different — more like their natural size. The trick takes advantage of Apple's AR+ which lets players also get closer to the augmented creatures, and potentially earn an Expert Handler title. That, plus the settlement, may not be enough to bring Pokémon Go back to its original traffic levels. But with a new Harry Potter AR game expected from Niantic this year, they may be looking to a new adventure.

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