Blizzard Raises BlizzCon Ticket Prices For Third Year Running

[RobCoxxy]

Not gonna lie, wouldn't have been able to get that out of my head and would have ended it sooner. :L

I also have a Sonic Screwdriver... :/
And want the awesome coat....

Shall I?

Go ahead, I prefer John Simm and his megalomania anyways.

After all...he's such a damned devilish man in a suit. =D

John Simm is a goddamned legend.

Damned right he is! But we'd better cut it out before the big bad mods run in and hammer us for trainwrecking the topic. =o

I think we've gone off on a bit of a tangent, aye....

 

[Jamous]

Do Blizzard really need more money? Really?! :O

 

[Captain Pirate]

And they will still sell out in less then 20 minutes. If people will pay the price then they don't need to worry.

This. They know they'll all sell regardless, so it's perfectly logical for them to milk it for all it's worth. Besides it's only 25$ more. I don't know if that's a hell of a lot in America, but it doesn't seem it.
But considering how many tickets there are, they'll make an absolute shitload extra with just 25$ extra per ticket.

It's like when MW2 came out for £42 instead of the usual £40. £2 x I dunno, 10 million sales = 20,000,000 extra monies.

 

[Kross]

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.

 

[Raddra]

Seems blizzard know the fanaticism of their fanbase.

 

[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.

Of course the convention costs them more than they make in ticket sales. They have hundreds of employees working constant hours + rent the space + buy these giant displays. What they aren't saying is that the promotion and buzz created makes it a worthwhile endeavor.

 

[teebeeohh]

why shouldn't they keep raising the price? people keep buying the tickets within nanoseconds of them going up for sale.

 

[dsawyers9]

Another reason why I quit playing Blizzard's top game WoW: Blizzard is a money grabbing jerk.

Now, I will not blame 100% of this desire for the $$$ towards Blizzard only, I will say Activision should be taken into the picture, about 40% was on their side.

Yeah the $500 tickets gives some of the profit to a Foundation, but lets be serious, how much is actually going to the Foundation? 10% of the total income from the tickets?

If I had 1 wish, it would be that someone dethrones Blizzard and knocks them on their ass. I'm so! Happy! that Blizzard didn't win March Madness. I like SC/SC2 and I like the Diablo Series, but in general, I don't like the WoW because I don't like the way the Developers read and reply to crap on their forums. They're just like Politicians, they never fix the problems, just add to it. AKA: Cataclysm was a huge HUGE failure.

 

[danhere]

Considering the hotel and plane ticket cost that people ignore for some reason (since most of the people attending will not be locals), BlizzCon can easily cost over $1000. $25 is a joke compared to this. I'm sure even $250 tickets would sell, just at a slightly slower rate. The demand is ridiculous and imbalanced compared to the supply in this case.

Another reason why I quit playing Blizzard's top game WoW: Blizzard is a money grabbing jerk.

Now, I will not blame 100% of this desire for the $$$ towards Blizzard only, I will say Activision should be taken into the picture, about 40% was on their side.

Yeah the $500 tickets gives some of the profit to a Foundation, but lets be serious, how much is actually going to the Foundation? 10% of the total income from the tickets?

If I had 1 wish, it would be that someone dethrones Blizzard and knocks them on their ass. I'm so! Happy! that Blizzard didn't win March Madness. I like SC/SC2 and I like the Diablo Series, but in general, I don't like the WoW because I don't like the way the Developers read and reply to crap on their forums. They're just like Politicians, they never fix the problems, just add to it. AKA: Cataclysm was a huge HUGE failure.

You just sound kind of bitter for no reason...There's no point in childish grudges.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Cataclysm was a huge HUGE failure.

Do you have anything to back that claim up with? Sales figures or current active subscription numbers? Anything factual at all, or are you just saying that because you're one of those people who whines and complains on the WoW forums because you think the devs are out to get you?

You're not being clever nor are you being edgy with your distaste for WoW. Give me actual factual proof that Cataclysm was a "HUGE" failure for Blizzard and I'll agree with you. If all you've got is your rage because they changed something, you didn't like it, and then got mad when the dev team wouldn't bend to your incessant whining and cursing of their names on the forums then there's no need to pursue this argument further.

 

[Sugarman101]

Since the addition of multiple streams for the online pass, it's far better value for money. $40 isn't really all that much at the end of the day, and it's the next best thing to being there. Living in Australia it would cost me an absolute fortune to get over there for Blizzcon, so I settle for being there virtually. Sure you can get the core details from the millions of news posts across the net, but it's not really the same.

As for the proper tickets, if people are willing to pay the increased price I don't really see the problem. Blizzard has every right to offset as much of their costs as possible.

 

[Excludos]

Why do people think that making blizzcon is free? renting the venue itself will cost more than most of you will earn in your entire life. Then theres the staff that needs being payed, all the equipment, price money for the tournaments.

The most obvious reason for the ticket price increase is the fact that this year's blizzcon will be about twice as big as yesteryears one. (If I remember the plans correctly. Its been a while since that newspost was up)

 

[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.