Blizzard Raises BlizzCon Ticket Prices For Third Year Running

[Sartan0]

It does seem very expensive but then I never really was into going in the first place.

If you really want to go you can.

 

[John Funk]

I'm sorry, but Blizzard not making money from Blizzcon just sounds like an outright lie. Last year the tickets were, what, $150? And if I recall, they were sold out. They made money. This year they just hope to make even more, and they will. I'm pretty sure that even the $500 tickets will go in mere seconds...

Or Frank pearce was lying to justify Blizzard fleecing it's pretty gullible fans more? Baa! Baa!

Do you have any idea how much money it costs to hold a convention like that? No? Okay then.

-Renting the whole Anaheim Convention Center for at least a week (construction/breakdown time)
-All of the set pieces, displays, everything
-Hundreds and hundreds of computers for the tournaments
-Power requirements for same
-Hundreds of staff to keep the event running
-Guests/musical acts, etc

It's way more than the $3.5m you'd get by selling 20,000 tickets at $175.

That said, there are benefits for Blizzard that go way beyond simple fiscal stuff. It gets a convention to itself to promote its own games, it helps ensure fan loyalty, it makes its merchandising partners like Jinx happy to sell their stuff, and the Blizzard employees all get to go and have a blast so it's good for morale.

 

[Sartan0]

Well, it's probably the easiest way to cut down the quantity of people [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand] trying to go to the convention. If you sell out in just a few minutes consistently, it makes sense to raise the price until you reduce the people down to manageable amounts. Especially if they were operating at a loss to begin with.

Also, it means that the people who are the most likely to be buying the various things available at the convention will be the ones with tickets.

Yep. Many problems occur when a popular good or service are priced too low. It can cause riots. It makes perfect sense to raise your prices in response. Thank you for sharing economic thought with the masses. I wish econ was required learning. At least Supply and Demand and the concept of "Opportunity cost". How even if something is "free" it might cost you more valuable time where you could be making something. It is useful for working out the best options.

 

[Ritalynn]

last year i went to blizzcon LOVED hanging out with my friends had fun at the convention. But when i thought about it...

The last 2 years they did absolutly nothing.....no beta keys. no no "real info" on ANYTHING.

this year will be the same. no keys, no new info. They will just say "OH LOOK WE HAVE THIS PATCH COMMING OUT! and quote the patch notes".

Pretty sure the only way i'll go is buying 4 tickets and selling 3 on ebay to pay for hte flight and hotel.

 

[aashell13]

cripes a'mighty. $40 just to watch the streaming video of the thing? blizzard just lost a lot of points with me. sorry guys, i like my money more than anything of yours.

 

[Excludos]

cripes a'mighty. $40 just to watch the streaming video of the thing? blizzard just lost a lot of points with me. sorry guys, i like my money more than anything of yours.

It was 40 usd last year too..Seeing as they lost points for not increasing that, I'm guessing you really didn't have much on them to begin with.

 

[darkman80723]

As long as there are persons willing to pay...prices will go up. I could go on a wee little rant about how Blizz is evil and greedy or how the people are just fanatic fools but that would be hypocritical since I spent $75 to go see NIN and $50 to Slayer/Manson in the past. We all have our likes, we all have our dislikes and we all have our obsessions and who is Blizz not to represent a true and pure capitalist system and take advantage of the little man.

 

[Gxas]

And yet the virtual tickets are still the same price. So... I guess I'll be visiting Cali from the comfort of my computer chair.

 

[Snake Plissken]

Blizzard wants more money?

This is shockingly shocking! I'm fucking shocked!

 

[Kross]

Yep. Many problems occur when a popular good or service are priced too low. It can cause riots. It makes perfect sense to raise your prices in response. Thank you for sharing economic thought with the masses. I wish econ was required learning. At least Supply and Demand and the concept of "Opportunity cost". How even if something is "free" it might cost you more valuable time where you could be making something. It is useful for working out the best options.

I admit I giggled at the notion of this being "expensive" for a convention when more tech oriented trade shows/conventions tend to start at about $1000 a ticket after "discounts". Although those tend to offer more professionally valuable talks and such, but not always.

 

[Danpascooch]

Seriously? Whatever, I'm a PAX East kinda guy anyway

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Why am I not surprised with this.

Hell,Blizzard could put literally any price on their tickets and they would still sell out in the first day.

 

[Throwitawaynow]

This is like saying you lose money from marketing a product. Yes you spend money on it, but you do it in order to promote and increase interest in your product. In theory this increased interest leads to increased sales which make up for that loss.

Really? You think people that don't already own almost everything Blizzard has done is spending $175 on an event about something they know nothing about?

Also laughing out loud every post that says blizzard is probably lieing about taking losses when comparing convention cost versus ticket and merch sales.

 

[Caliostro]

If you pay for it, you deserve it.

 

[Caliostro]

Hell,Blizzard could put literally any price on their tickets and they would still sell out in the first day.

They sold out years out.

 

[godofallu]

This is like saying you lose money from marketing a product. Yes you spend money on it, but you do it in order to promote and increase interest in your product. In theory this increased interest leads to increased sales which make up for that loss.

Really? You think people that don't already own almost everything Blizzard has done is spending $175 on an event about something they know nothing about?

Also laughing out loud every post that says blizzard is probably lieing about taking losses when comparing convention cost versus ticket and merch sales.

I have never played a Blizzard game, yet here I am talking about Blizzcon.

This expo promotes their studio, and the games they make to the world.

It also keeps current customers excited about future purchases.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Well, it's probably the easiest way to cut down the quantity of people [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand] trying to go to the convention. If you sell out in just a few minutes consistently, it makes sense to raise the price until you reduce the people down to manageable amounts. Especially if they were operating at a loss to begin with.

Also, it means that the people who are the most likely to be buying the various things available at the convention will be the ones with tickets.

This does bring up an interesting thought. How high would they have to go to not sell out. Blizzard has some pretty hardcore fans. I hear tales that some will pay upwards of $500 for a rare in game mount in WoW. And while not all of those may want to go to this convention, I wouldn't be surprised if they sold out at $300 tickets.

(also BTW I always wanted to point out that I love your avatar. I am psyched beyond belief for Diablo 3. and while I don't personally have the money to attend BlizzCon I am anxiously awaiting the news that this year will announce.)

 

[Zer_]

I'm sorry, but Blizzard not making money from Blizzcon just sounds like an outright lie. Last year the tickets were, what, $150? And if I recall, they were sold out. They made money. This year they just hope to make even more, and they will. I'm pretty sure that even the $500 tickets will go in mere seconds...

Or Frank pearce was lying to justify Blizzard fleecing it's pretty gullible fans more? Baa! Baa!

Do you have any idea how much money it costs to hold a convention like that? No? Okay then.

-Renting the whole Anaheim Convention Center for at least a week (construction/breakdown time)
-All of the set pieces, displays, everything
-Hundreds and hundreds of computers for the tournaments
-Power requirements for same
-Hundreds of staff to keep the event running
-Guests/musical acts, etc

It's way more than the $3.5m you'd get by selling 20,000 tickets at $175.

That said, there are benefits for Blizzard that go way beyond simple fiscal stuff. It gets a convention to itself to promote its own games, it helps ensure fan loyalty, it makes its merchandising partners like Jinx happy to sell their stuff, and the Blizzard employees all get to go and have a blast so it's good for morale.

QuakeCon, one of the biggest LANParties in the world is hosted for free. They rely on some paid workers, but mostly volunteers to help setup the networks.

http://www.quakecon.org/

Now, QuakeCon is slightly different than a convention, it's more akin to a large tournament. Usually having around 8500+ attendees. Most of those attendees have their computers set up using QuakeCon hosted networks and power.

2004 Statistics:

-Over 200,001 ft2 (19,000 m2) of BYOC, vendor, and convention floor space
-BYOC utilized over 1,200 power strips
-Network composed of over 80,000 feet (24 km) of Cat5/Cat5e cable
-Table switching infrastructure: 144 Linksys managed switches
-Core switching infrastructure: Cisco Systems 6509 switch with 7 × 48 port Gigabit ethernet blades, dual Supervisor 720 modules and dual 4000Watt power supplies
-Setup of all components of the BYOC (network plant, servers, tournament, NOC, etc.) was completed with a staff of over 500 unpaid volunteers over a 2-day period. The vendor areas were set up by contractors.

Oh and:

http://vimeo.com/14158455

 

[John Funk]

I'm sorry, but Blizzard not making money from Blizzcon just sounds like an outright lie. Last year the tickets were, what, $150? And if I recall, they were sold out. They made money. This year they just hope to make even more, and they will. I'm pretty sure that even the $500 tickets will go in mere seconds...

Or Frank pearce was lying to justify Blizzard fleecing it's pretty gullible fans more? Baa! Baa!

Do you have any idea how much money it costs to hold a convention like that? No? Okay then.

-Renting the whole Anaheim Convention Center for at least a week (construction/breakdown time)
-All of the set pieces, displays, everything
-Hundreds and hundreds of computers for the tournaments
-Power requirements for same
-Hundreds of staff to keep the event running
-Guests/musical acts, etc

It's way more than the $3.5m you'd get by selling 20,000 tickets at $175.

That said, there are benefits for Blizzard that go way beyond simple fiscal stuff. It gets a convention to itself to promote its own games, it helps ensure fan loyalty, it makes its merchandising partners like Jinx happy to sell their stuff, and the Blizzard employees all get to go and have a blast so it's good for morale.

QuakeCon, one of the biggest LANParties in the world is hosted for free. They rely on some paid workers, but mostly volunteers to help setup the networks.

http://www.quakecon.org/

Now, QuakeCon is slightly different than a convention, it's more akin to a large tournament. Usually having around 8500+ attendees. Most of those attendees have their computers set up using QuakeCon hosted networks and power.

2004 Statistics:

-Over 200,001 ft2 (19,000 m2) of BYOC, vendor, and convention floor space
-BYOC utilized over 1,200 power strips
-Network composed of over 80,000 feet (24 km) of Cat5/Cat5e cable
-Table switching infrastructure: 144 Linksys managed switches
-Core switching infrastructure: Cisco Systems 6509 switch with 7 × 48 port Gigabit ethernet blades, dual Supervisor 720 modules and dual 4000Watt power supplies
-Setup of all components of the BYOC (network plant, servers, tournament, NOC, etc.) was completed with a staff of over 500 unpaid volunteers over a 2-day period. The vendor areas were set up by contractors.

Oh and:

http://vimeo.com/14158455

Rely on volunteers.

People bring their own machines.

No gigantic set pieces.

No demonstration equipment, no giant signs and video system.

No hiring out the Anaheim Convention Center for a week+.

Do you... not see the difference?

 

[Zer_]

I'm sorry, but Blizzard not making money from Blizzcon just sounds like an outright lie. Last year the tickets were, what, $150? And if I recall, they were sold out. They made money. This year they just hope to make even more, and they will. I'm pretty sure that even the $500 tickets will go in mere seconds...

Or Frank pearce was lying to justify Blizzard fleecing it's pretty gullible fans more? Baa! Baa!

Do you have any idea how much money it costs to hold a convention like that? No? Okay then.

-Renting the whole Anaheim Convention Center for at least a week (construction/breakdown time)
-All of the set pieces, displays, everything
-Hundreds and hundreds of computers for the tournaments
-Power requirements for same
-Hundreds of staff to keep the event running
-Guests/musical acts, etc

It's way more than the $3.5m you'd get by selling 20,000 tickets at $175.

That said, there are benefits for Blizzard that go way beyond simple fiscal stuff. It gets a convention to itself to promote its own games, it helps ensure fan loyalty, it makes its merchandising partners like Jinx happy to sell their stuff, and the Blizzard employees all get to go and have a blast so it's good for morale.

QuakeCon, one of the biggest LANParties in the world is hosted for free. They rely on some paid workers, but mostly volunteers to help setup the networks.

http://www.quakecon.org/

Now, QuakeCon is slightly different than a convention, it's more akin to a large tournament. Usually having around 8500+ attendees. Most of those attendees have their computers set up using QuakeCon hosted networks and power.

2004 Statistics:

-Over 200,001 ft2 (19,000 m2) of BYOC, vendor, and convention floor space
-BYOC utilized over 1,200 power strips
-Network composed of over 80,000 feet (24 km) of Cat5/Cat5e cable
-Table switching infrastructure: 144 Linksys managed switches
-Core switching infrastructure: Cisco Systems 6509 switch with 7 × 48 port Gigabit ethernet blades, dual Supervisor 720 modules and dual 4000Watt power supplies
-Setup of all components of the BYOC (network plant, servers, tournament, NOC, etc.) was completed with a staff of over 500 unpaid volunteers over a 2-day period. The vendor areas were set up by contractors.

Oh and:

http://vimeo.com/14158455

Rely on volunteers. - Blizzard should probably consider this. Especially if the volunteers are given free attendance.

People bring their own machines. - Imagine if BlizzCon attendees all brought their computers. That's a huge power draw.

No gigantic set pieces. - False QuakeCon regularly has huge set pieces. Mostly Quake, or id Software related. They may not have as many as BlizzCon, but they are there.

No demonstration equipment, no giant signs and video system. - Large projectors to display tournament footage. Large projectors and screens for the various booths and announcements. It's also worthy to note that most of the equipment used at these conventions are either rented, or already owned by Blizzard. Exceptions being the computer systems, those are usually re-sold afterwards.

No hiring out the Anaheim Convention Center for a week+. - I concede this one, the Anaheim Convention Center is huge. I must know, do they rent the entire space?

Do you... not see the difference?

Actually, QuakeCon is also a convention. It may not be as big a convention than Blizzard's but they have rather large announcements.

QuakeCon still purchases computers for the high level tournaments, and the various game exhibits.

EDIT: Also I'm not saying that BlizzCon costs less than QuakeCon, that would probably be absurd. BlizzCon is much more elaborate than QCon. My main point here is, QuakeCon is (literally) infinitely less expensive to attend than BlizzCon. And QuakeCon is North America's biggest BYOC LANParty.