E3 2017 will be open to the public, and tickets go on sale soon

By Danny Cowan February 8, 2017

e3 2017 foes public e3floor — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Organizers of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) announced that 15,000 entry tickets will go up for sale next week, marking the first time that the annual gaming-focused showcase event and trade show will be open to the public.

Early buyers can get a $100 discount on three-day passes when ticket sales begin on Monday via E3’s official website.

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Dating back to 1995, E3 is an annual business gathering for games industry publishers and developers. Alongside showcase events and keynote briefings, the expo allows journalists and industry professionals to test early versions of upcoming games while discussing the development process with their creators.

Though it remains a high-profile industry trade show, E3 suffered a decline in attendance in recent years, leading many major publishers to skip the event in favor of their own gatherings. In 2016, publishers Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Disney Interactive, and Wargaming revealed they were skipping E3 2016, and are unlikely to return for this year’s expo.

E3 previously sought to improve flagging attendance by inviting thousands of “prosumers” to its 2015 and 2016 events. Exhibitors handed out over 10,000 prosumer passes over the last two E3 events, opening up the trade show to customers, gaming personalities, YouTubers, and social media influencers. The experiment was apparently successful, as 2017 event organizers are now preparing for an influx of 15,000 gamers via public ticket sales.

E3 2017’s first 1,000 tickets will be offered up for sale at $149 each, while the remaining 14,000 passes will be priced at $249. All passes grant full show floor access over the course of the event.

E3 tickets will go on sale at the event’s official website at 9 a.m. (PT) on Monday. The event will kick off on June 13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

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