E3 2017 will be open to the public
by Patrick Delahanty, Executive Producer, FanCons.com
The Entertainment Software Association, the managing organization behind E3, has announced today that it will sell 15,000 consumer passes to E3 2017 on February 13th. Passes will be priced at $249 each with the first 1,000 selling for $149.
Starting as the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1995, E3 has always presented the event as one for professionals in the video game industry. By 2006, it had expanded to include bloggers and others who were not perceived to be "industry professionals" and the ESA announced that E3 2007 would become an invitation-only event. In 2009, E3 reverted to the show's previous format.
This is the first time that the ESA has made E3 open to the general public. With a reported attendance of 50,300 people in 2016, the name recognition of the convention, and the popularity of the convention among video game professionals and those that follow video game news, it is expected that the 15,000 passes will sell out almost immediately.
E3 will be held June 13-15, 2017 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.