One of the priciest conventions around is steadily getting pricier.
If you’re a Blizzard fan and you’ve set your heart on attending the BlizzCon convention in October, your pockets are going to have to be a little bit deeper than they were last year, as Blizzard is increasing the ticket price for the two-day event for the third time in a row.
Tickets will now cost $175, an increase of $25 over last year’s price. Besides the regular tickets, Blizzard will sell a small number – around 200 – of special tickets for the princely sum of $500. These include access to a special benefit dinner, and some of the proceeds from the ticket sale will go to help the Orange County Children’s Hospital. Blizzard will sell the tickets in two batches through its website, and those unable to secure an actual ticket will be able to get a “Virtual Ticket” for $40, which will allow online access to live video of the event.
In a keynote speech at AGDC in 2009, Blizzard’s Frank Pearce said that the company didn’t actually make a profit from BlizzCon. On the contrary, he said that it made a “significant loss” for Blizzard. The likeliest explanations for these price hikes is either that Blizzard is hoping to turn things around and actually make some money from the event, or that it is trying to minimize the loss without scaling back the convention itself.
BlizzCon takes place on October 21st and 22nd at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim California. Tickets will be available to purchase on Saturday, May 21 at 10AM Pacific Time, and Wednesday, May 25 at 7PM Pacific Time.
Source: Gamasutra
