E3 2017 Open To Public
E3 will be open to the general public for the first time in 2017. Pictured: A woman attends the E3 in Los Angeles, June 16, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

E3 — the annual trade fair for video games — is an event that gamers wait for throughout the year. Many popular gaming titles and new gaming technologies are showcased at the event every year.

E3 is managed by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), and is usually held at the Los Angeles Convention Centre. Before this year, it was an industry-only event restricted to gaming professionals, game developers and technology journalists. Everyone attending the event needed to have an ESA-verified professional connection to the gaming industry.

Now, the event will be open to the general public. E3’s Twitter account on Wednesday declared that consumer tickets would go on sale Feb. 13.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the event is a Mecca for hardcore gamers. Gaming industry titans such as Electronic Arts, Bethesda and Ubisoft launched games such as Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Battlefield 1, The Elder Scrolls Online and Watch Dogs 2 at the event. For gamers, who spend hours at end on a game and eagerly wait a whole year for the next version of the game to release, E3 is significant event.

In 2016, several technology companies marked their presence at the event — Sony announced its PlayStation VR, AMD announced two new graphics processing units for gamers and Nintendo announced titles for its 3DS console.

Major gaming titles such as Watch Dogs 3, along with new gaming products, are expected to be announced at the event this year.

The tickets for the 2017 E3 will cost $250, and early birds will get them at $150.