GameSpot: E3 Opens To The Public For The First Time Ever

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rösti
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Would be interested to try this, although considering how people have complained how crowded the show already is, I can see it even being more of a pain this year. If this ends up working out well, I'll have to try and go in the next couple years.
 
It's gonna be a disaster.

Kind of want to go now.

If there was a stampede of journos for Zelda just last year, imagine the stampede this year of hundreds of sweaty nerds hoping to get their hands on new Switch games.
 
The_Spaniard said:
Usually if you go to each booth's media check-in desk and flash credentials, if they can't find an opening for you, they can at least push you to the front of the pleb lines as press. You also get the added benefit of seeing all those death glares from people that have sat in line for hours as you walk past them to do your job.

Man, I'm not looking forward to seeing how crowded it is this year. Unless they re-open Kentia Hall the crowds might be nearing unbearable at this point. I'd say the best plan would be for the first couple days to be industry only, then add one more day to the convention, and have the last two days be open to industry and ticket holding public.
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Does that mean I can create some no-name video game review site and get to the front of the lines?
 
Gotta wonder if more/less publishers will come with this recent change? Honestly I find it ridiculously expensive to just wait in line and aren't most of the really big games behind closed doors.
 
I've been twice and even before I'd been I was told by colleagues that you get a better E3 experience through the internet rather than being there. Booth staff are not going to be happy to be mobbed by fanboys and youtubers. Are there still booth babes? Those poor women. beginning of the end as a new show will start up for business only while running for 1+2 years concurrently with E3 before E3 no longer exists.
 
pay money to queue up so that i can smell the 'scent' of nerds that didn't shower for 2 days?

Unless Bloodborne 2 is being announced and playable on the showfloor, no thanks mate.
 
Ouch, I feel bad for people trying to actually get work done at the convention. I'd rather watch everything live in HD for free in my PJs like every year. Letting the public attend will bring in cash for the E3 organization, but publishers aren't going to wait to pay setup costs so that Joe Schmoe can play Zelda for 15 minutes. All the big demo builds are still by appointment, I would imagine. Gotta throw the press a bone sometime.
 
fna84 said:
Does that mean I can create some no-name video game review site and get to the front of the lines?
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Not anymore, they have clamped their anuses pretty tight in the last few years. They have gotten to the point that I've seen them turn away developers trying to register that actually have games on display at the show. It's good that they are more discerning now, because i did get to the point where people were just throwing up a phony site just before E3 to get in (Hell I used to piggyback a handful of friends in on my credentials alone), but turning away people that can prove industry cred is just idiocy. Often times just some kind of credentials, a little politeness, and a fair bit of social engineering can get you a long way, but it's getting harder and harder.
 
I was tempted flying out (from UK) for Kinda Funny Live at the begining of June anyway so could have just extended the trip, had actually been trying to get a ticket via contacts etc, but then when Greg talked about it on the Morning Show yesterday raised a lot of good points mainly that highly doubts that all the exhibitors will go out of there way to accomidate the public, issues for personalities etc which might keep them off the show floor unless security etc, likely to be a very akward year while it finds its footing, might wait till next year when the iron out all the kinks, you likely wont get access to the upper floor where apprently most the cool stuff goes on.

Also E3 was designed for press/industry and purchasers from Wallmart/game uk etc etc desgined to show them whats coming up so they buy loads of it for there stores, did not see this mentioned much in the thread so thought i would add that.
 
I might try to go to this, always wanted to go but i never really had the oppertunity before.

Im already wanting to do a bigish international trip, ive been making tentative plans. This would be a good excuse to try LA again.

Honestly though what im really hoping is that these tickets take the heat off pax west tix so they dont sell out in minutes.
 
15,000 attendees and $250 for the first time since 2006?

ca9.gif
 
This is going to make for some fun on social media during E3. Fans who bought access will complain that the games they want to play either aren't accessible or have all-day lines. Press will complain about too much traffic to wade through. Good times, assuredly.

I don't blame fans for being excited about this opportunity. Many have read about E3 for years and now have the chance to go. It's dream stuff-- but the reality of it is far different, once you get there. Without appointments and/or industry contacts, fans aren't getting close to most of the prominent games. Access to the Nintendo stuff will almost assuredly be near-impossible, and that will be one of the show's most populated areas. It's possible that a few exhibitors-- maybe indie devs or accessories makers-- will be less crowded, but these will be exceptions and not the rule.

I feel for press, too. As it is, getting from one appointment to the next is a challenge with the throngs of attendees already in place. Add another 10K, and... yeah. People had better bulk up, because there will be some pushing and shoving to get by. For smaller press outlets who are unable to land appointments, it's going to be the ultimate nightmare.

Worst of all, I feel for exhibitors. Having to change strategy and cater to fans-- as well as the demands of press and of retail purchasers-- that extra stress is gonna be tough to handle. There will be a lot of complaining from fans that don't get access to games on the show floor, or angry that the games they want to see are behind closed doors. It's going to take a lot of patience to deal with this new element.

I'm fortunate and feel honored that I got to attend E3. Each year was amazing and I learned a lot about the business and about how to manage my time in an event like that. I met amazing people, forged friendships, and got to see (and cover) some really cool stuff. I get wanting to go... but, unless you're a professional, you've got to keep your expectations in check. Fans are not going to get the same experiences that they've read about online or in magazines over the years.
 
This is something that would have been really exciting to me when I was a kid but gradually list interest in. The stories of how it smells must have gotten to me.
 
Question, do we expect this to sell out fast? Because I am seriously considering it.

edit: followup question where do I order these tickets because e3expo.com is still showing 2016 info like "this is not open to the public"
 
I am seeing a lot of talk about these Consumer Passes, but very little about Expo and Media Passes. It'd be dull if that won't become available on February 13.
 
$250 for Line Con, I'll pass.

While I get the anger at it being opened more to the public, I understand why from a business perspective why they're doing this. E3 has slowly but surely dying in terms of relevance to the general public at large since 2006, though I think PAX Prime 10 or 11 was where you saw the winds starting to really change that sentiment with the general public feelings towards E3 those years. Now people had access to new games coming and weren't reliant on having to go through sites like IGN or Gamespot.
Also meant that WoM became a lot more important as if someone saw something they really liked, they probably tell 10 of their friends about it and so and so forth. Which has a lot more weight in terms of buying power than like an exclusive on IGN.
What I expect this year being open to the general public an experiment to see if it improves interest in the event and such. I could see them lifting the public attendance cap much higher if it proves successful.
 
Getting passes to E3 was already pretty much a joke, they let everyone in under the flimsiest of criteria.

The enthusiast press (that matter) have full private appointment schedules, increased lines aren't going to matter.

The ESA is trying to hedge against the increasing amount of publishers and platforms who don't feel E3 is as valuable to their marketing cycle as it was earlier in the gen and are drastically reducing presence at the show or pulling out entirely. The "show" itself has been dwarfed by the press briefings usually held in entirely different facilities.
 
As a convention, this has to be maybe one of the worst values in the nerd world. $250 for 9-5 access to an exhibitor's hall and nothing else. No panels or discussions, no autograph sessions, no dealer's room, no fan-driven events or parties, no cosplay contests, no industry Q&A. Just a big hall of videogames and 2 hour lines to play them.

How many big publishers have pulled out of E3 anyway? Electronic Arts is gone. Take2/Rockstar never really shows up in a meaningful fashion. Isn't Ubisoft almost out of the picture as well?
 
Rösti;230013278 said:
Attendee/media passes will probably be $795-995 still though.
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Those passes are free if you can prove you are media or industry. I have gone for free the last 3 or 4 years.
 
I've gone the last 3 years, "for free" and ended up only going for 1 day usually, and it was a lot of fun, even just walking around the floor at everything is enjoyable. It's E3! They have some cool stuff setup outside as well.

And I mean, it's in the middle of the week. Day drinking! It's a fun mini-vacation, and I live in LA.

For $250.. I don't know. $150 is a solid sell for me though. If you had to add on hotel/car rental/etc.. then I dunno. As long as you were doing stuff in LA other than just E3 it could be fine.

Just make sure you go with a friend, I imagine it would be dreadful alone.
 
It's been a big dream for me years ago to attend E3. While this would be a great chance for me at $150, if I get a pass for the much on Monday, I've been satisfied enough with the PAX events I went to. I live in San Diego which is a couple of hours away, so a trip down there would be no problem.

I'll have to think about this with all the speculation in this thread.
 
fna84 said:
Does that mean I can create some no-name video game review site and get to the front of the lines?
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I think it was the Resident Evil 7 demo line where they told any press to fuck off because they hoarded the passes for the first two days. A lot of them got mad they couldn't just cut to the front.
 
How fast does everyone think these tickets will go?
I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning and I'm not sure how they will feel about me stopping to try to get these tickets lol
 
i say this as someone who knows way too much about videogames

videogames aren't important enough for an event like this to be closed to the average person. i think this is a good thing, even though it's obvious they're doing it to combat the fact that interest in e3 has been fading for a while now.
 
While I appreciate the fact that others will get a chance to experience the event I already shudder when I think about the crowd size. There are way too many people around as it is. Ugh...
 
Sooo...when will we see a thread from someone who bought a ticket and then realised it doesn't get them into a keynote presentation?
 
I think the show floor should be open up for 4 days. 2 for the press to cover the games and 2 for the public to check out the games they want.
 
Skux said:
Well it's only a matter of time before booth babes are reinstated...
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And is it really that terrible if booth babes come back? I don't think it's necessary, but I think as long as companies don't go too far, it's not a terrible thing.
 
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