BlizzCon 2009 ticket sales are done
by Mike Schramm 
Jun 1st 2009 at 11:00AM
BlizzCon 2009 tickets went on sale for the last time on Saturday at 10am PST, and were reported as sold out less than 30 minutes later. As expected, there were lots of disappointed Blizzard fans, but compared to the way things worked last year, this year's system was much more fair and much less frustrating. Unfortunately, you had to be quick -- while the sellout time was actually around 10:24, tickets really sold out in a matter of seconds, because if you clicked the buy button even 30 seconds to a minute after it went live, you were too far back in the queue to buy tickets at all. But even though it was a very small window of chance, it was at least a fair chance -- Blizzard's meter for tickets left on Saturday started at around 50%, which indicates that they split the two days of sales right down the middle. As long as you showed up and clicked at the right time, you had as much chance as anyone else. At least we got a great game out of it.If you have tickets, enjoy the show (and don't forget: our meetup will be on Thursday night!). But if you don't, what now? The DirecTV stream will be available both via their service and on the Internet. And even if you don't jump in on that deal, we'll of course have plenty of up-to-date coverage, as will lots of folks in the community. And if you want to go a little black market, tickets will probably be available online in a few different places. We've already heard that Blizzard is starting to crack down on eBay, but certainly there are other places tickets will appear for sale. And as time goes on, we're sure people who were planning to go won't be able to make it, contests will be held in various places, and a few more tickets will free up.
So all hope may not be lost. But unless you want to call in a favor or pay a premium, BlizzCon tickets are sold. We say: the fourth weekend in August can't come soon enough.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Odds and ends, Blizzard, BlizzCon
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sinthar Jun 1st 2009 11:15AM
Oh the tickets sold - not a great surprise really at this stage - anything this post actually says at all newsworthy - the - its a great game - sort of motif is not exactly aweinspiring either
Guido666 Jun 1st 2009 11:18AM
It could be worse, they could have turned it into one of those stupid "story" posts they've been doing lately. "Once upon a time, a young paladin ventured to get Blizzcon tickets, and failed. He..."
Sinthar Jun 1st 2009 11:23AM
Ouch - yeah true - kk ill count my blessings - great job you managed to report a nothing in a non fictionafied way? Thats about as far as ill go tho :)
awwjwah Jun 1st 2009 11:28AM
Has there been confirmation yet that purchase of the on-line streaming will also provide the in game "item"?
jay Jun 1st 2009 11:30AM
I entered the queue literally two seconds after 1pm (10am pst) and I was already about 2300th in line. I got tickets but just barely as there was 3% stock left. It was nerve wracking to say the least.
SamFisher Jun 1st 2009 11:42AM
I had Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox open, all logged into the store 20 min prior (to avoid problems when the big moment arrived) set up on my screen in a triangle formation so I could click once on the window I wanted, hit F5, and while its refreshing go on to the next window, hit F5, etc.. I also had timeanddate.com opened up to help anticipate, but started my round robin clicking 5 min prior. At 10:00:00 AM on timeanddate.com, (I happened to be on Explorer) the refresh showed the purchase drop down menu, I chose 2 and hit go, and was in the que at 10:00:03, and 903 people back, when I got to the front of the line there was 41% of stock left, so I assume they sold around 10,000 tickets total.
Guido666 Jun 1st 2009 11:59AM
A little hint for next time, the Opera browser has auto-refresh!
Blake Jun 1st 2009 11:43AM
I learned my lesson on the 16th about refreshing the page. I was hitting it every 5 to 10 seconds waiting for tickets to be posted and was too far back in the queue, so at 9:58, I started refreshing every second, hammering their servers. It seemed to be the only way to have a chance.
And it worked, got in line for 2 tickets at spot #444 and got my tix. Odd that they've created a system that rewards you for hitting the refresh button and hammering their site.
Retropally Jun 1st 2009 11:47AM
Its a real shame they cant do this event on a much much larger scale, maybe outdoors or something. Yes, weather permitting...but heck, theres easily ways of stopping a bit of rain from damaging things.
They'd be able to sell a lot more tickets and leave less people dissapointed. Either that or hire out a football stadium and have major events in there so the majority of people will only miss out on playing the games. I know that if I stood any chance at all of going to blizzcon i'd be going for the talks...
Herbz Jun 1st 2009 1:13PM
I agree. I'm sure that idea is picking up steam hopefully for next years BlizzCon. Although blizzard likes to keep this exclusive, It would be better if this was done in a larger setting.
Mike Jun 1st 2009 12:10PM
Take it from someone who has been, you aren't missing much. Talking to others who have been to other conventions like comic, Blizzcon is the worst. It has nothing to do with Blizzard or the programming, but the demeanor and attitude of the people attending.
All I can say is that think about all the negative stereotypers that you read in game and on the forums, because that's exactly what you're going to witness firsthand. Of course, there will be exceptions
Joyous_Oblivion Jun 1st 2009 12:15PM
They go for the loot, nothing else, lol
Naix Jun 1st 2009 12:25PM
Let me save you a trip if you think you missed out on something.
1. The "hardcore" players dressed up as their favorite charters
2. People fighting over stats and who is the most OP
3. Groups of lore nerds starting every sentence with "Actually..."
4. Blizzard announcing another nurf to fear and over all warlock dps
5. Blizzard making an announcement of starcraft 2 possibly available in 1-3 years
6. New video footage of Diablo 3
Tondef Jun 1st 2009 2:29PM
You would think that since they sell out within moments, that they would consider doing more than one a year.. Maybe one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. If they had enough staff to run them simultaneously they could even have "play offs" of East vs West. Or even more than two sites and VTC the big speakers/demos to all sites. I'm surprised that they don't want as much market penetration as they could get.
volicio Jun 2nd 2009 10:46AM
stupid tickets, i was in queue at 10:00:08 and was already #6578 so I say UP YOURS to everyone on e-bay charging 500+ a ticket