A Pokemon Go festival in Chicago's Grant Park hit a glitch Saturday when attendees couldn't get Wi-Fi service on their mobile devices in sections of the park.
Niantic, the company that created the augmented reality game, ended up giving ticket refunds to the thousands of trainers -- the name for Pokemon players -- attending the event to mark the one-year anniversary of the product launch. It also gave them $100 in game currency and free game features.
As many as 20,000 people were expected at the festival, according to the Chicago Tribune.
"Today at Pokemon GO Fest in Chicago, technical issues created problems for a large number of players attending the event," a Niantic spokesperson said in a statement. "From everyone at Niantic, we apologize to all of the Trainers who came out to Pokemon GO Fest today. Although we were able to solve many of the technical issues, we were not able to offer every attendee a great experience."
The crowd booed Niantic officials, who apologized from a stage on many occasions because of connectivity problems and long wait lines, Brandon Omernik, 23, said in a direct message on Twitter.
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"Almost everyone on the festival grounds who didn't have Sprint as a provider was unable to log in to the game," said Omernik, who traveled from Wisconsin for the festival.
Another disappointment, Omernik said, was "the lack of content that people thought would be in the game."
