GameSpot: E3 Opens To The Public For The First Time Ever
For the first time ever, E3 is opening its doors to the public. The Entertainment Software Association, which organizes the event every year, announced today that an allotment of 15,000 tickets will be made available for anyone to buy this coming Monday, February 13.
Priced at $250 (or $150 as part of an early bird discount available on February 13), tickets provide access to the show floor, panel discussions, and other events from Tuesday through Thursday of E3 week. The ESA will partnerwith games media veteran Geoff Keighley to provide attendees with access to special benefits associated with Keighley's own E3 programming, such as developer interviews and more. Full details on this and other elements of E3's new public plans will be announced in the coming weeks.
For years now, there have been calls to open E3 to the public. The ESA conducted an experiment of sorts for this in 2016 with its E3 Live event, which was free and open to the public. It was located outside of the Los Angeles Convention Center, the site of E3, and attendees could go hands-on with upcoming games and take part in other events. There was "incredible attendee enthusiasm" for this event, the ESA's senior VP of communications, Rich Taylor, tells GameSpot. So the next step was to invite fans to actually walk the halls of E3 and get closer to the action.
"The feedback we heard was clear--they wanted to play the games inside the convention center. In addition, exhibitors inside the convention center wanted to have access to the fans. So this year we're bringing the two together," Taylor said.
E3 2017 takes place June 13-15. More than 200 exhibitors are lined up to attend the event--"leading companies from around the world," Taylor says. Bear in mind that the list of exhibitors on E3's website is not final, as discussions with publishers remain ongoing.
Source:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3...t-time-ever/1100-6447663/?ftag=GSS-05-10aaa0b