For the first time in its history, E3 is going to be opening its doors to the public. The Entertainment Software Association who is responsible for organizing the yearly event has announced that an allotment of 15,000 tickets will be made available. Anyone can buy the tickets this coming Feb. 13.
The tickets are priced at $250, they can be purchased at $150 as part of the early bird discount available on February 13. The tickets will provide access to the event’s show floor, panel discussions and numerous other events from Tuesday through Thursday. ESA will partner up with Geoff Keighley the media veteran to provide attendees access to special benefits such as developer interviews and more.
Calls for E3 to open its doors to the public have been made for several years. Last year, E3 allowed people into its Live event which was located outside of Los Angeles Convention Center. This was free of charge and open to the public. Attendees could take part of the event and go hands-on with upcoming games.
Rich Taylor, ESA’s senior VP of communications stated that there was incredible attendee enthusiasm for this event, so the next step was to invite the fans to actually come inside and walk the halls of E3 and immerse themselves in the action. Taylor said that the feedback was clear, the attendees wanted to play the games inside of the convention center. Also, the exhibitors inside the convention wanted to have access to their fans. It is this that led E3 to decide to bring the two together.
In addition to the standard passes. Access to business lounge, preferred entry to the center among other things will be provided by business passes that will also be available. E3 2017 is set to take place on June 13 through 15 and more than 200 exhibitors are lined up for attendance of the event as published by GameSpot.
ESA officials are encouraging leading streamers and Twitch people to register as media in this year’s event. The show will still have a central media and business component. ESA officials stated that business pass owners will have special benefits that include a dedicated entrance. It will also have a VIP Business Lounge. ESA anticipates that these business passes will appeal to analysts, executives, advertisers and lawyers as reported by Polygon.
