E3 is gearing up for a rather big change this year, as the show has announced that they will be opening up their doors to the public, this year. This is a HUGE announcement, especially for those who have been within the gaming industry for quite some time. E3 has always been the pinnacle when it comes to Electronic/Video game focused consumer shows, and with that said – has always kept it’s even open to members inside the industry, only.
This year will mark the first time ever that E3 has done this, as the company will be selling only $15,000 which will be priced between $149-$249, depending on when you purchase the ticket. The first 1,000 tickets will be marked at a price point of $149, with the remaining 14,000 priced at $249. This is a sort of odd way to go about selling tickets, but it seems the show is looking to bank as much money off of this as possible. It’s a $100 discount if you can be one of the first 1,000 ticket consumers, so you’ll have to act quick once the tickets go live on February 13th at 12am ET.
E3 2017 is set to take place from June 13th – June 17th, and will likely be one of the more “title-focused” years at the show when it comes to announcements, compared to the last few years where we have seen quite a few hardware related announcements. Both Microsoft and Sony finally have their VR systems out, so expect less announcements regarding VR devices; and with both Sony and Nintendo pretty much finished as far as hardware announcements go for this generation, you can expect both companies to be focusing much more on the larger titles that are set to arrive on their given platforms.
Microsoft is another story however, as they are the final company of the three to unveil their latest generation hardware upgrade – the Scorpio. The confirmed Xbox Scorpio is planned to be a console which features significant hardware upgrades and improvements over the current line of Xbox One consoles. From the sounds of things, the system is shaping up to be much more powerful than the PlayStation 4 Pro. Considering this system is quite likely to be the most power gaming console to ever be created, all eyes will be on Microsoft during this years E3, as the industry awaits to see what exactly they have in store for us in this generation final hardware frontier.
E3 is still a fairly large event, with last years participants being over 50,000. Despite this, I strongly feel this is a good part on E3’s behalf, as considering many companies are slowly branching away from the convention, at least in a small degree, and have begun kicking off their own annual conventions/shows – which are in fact open to the public. This has obviously left E3 in quite an awkward position.
Over the next few years, we are likely to see E3 evolve into something even greater and much more open to the entire gaming community. It will be an interesting, much needed transition.
E3 2017 tickets will be available to purchase on February 13th, at 12am EST, here.
