BlizzCon ’09 Ticket Sales Open On May 16th

May 7th, 2009

BlizzCon, the massive Blizzard-only convention, is now in its 4th year and soon you will be able to pick up tickets for this epic event. As with every year, it’s being held at the Anaheim Convention Centre in California. Unlike every year, ticket prices are now at a lofty $125 a piece rather than the usual $100. It will be worth every cent though when you consider it.

Firstly, Blizzard will have (in my opinion) their strongest BlizzCon yet with more news on Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2. They will probably announce the unnamed project too, and maybe even some upcoming World of WarCraft content. Secondly, you will get a beta key to something. My money is a Diablo 3 beta key as StarCraft 2′s beta keys were given out last year. Along with the beta key, you will get a goodies bag with some cool stuff. Thirdly, this is the last major American event prior to StarCraft 2′s release, so the anticipation will be higher than ever.

That $125 price of entry doesn’t seem that high anymore does it?

Last year Blizzard’s ticket purchasing system crashed due to the mass rush to buy tickets, so this year they have implemented a virtual queue to make things more civilized. The second batch of tickets goes on sale on May 20th if you miss out on the 16th.

BlizzCon 2009 tickets go on sale May 16, and a second batch goes on sale May 30. In anticipation of high demand, we are introducing a new automated queue system to streamline the ticket-sales process and help ensure that purchases go smoothly. So that you know what to expect when ticket sales begin, here’s a brief rundown of how the system works:

1) Create a Battle.net Account

We highly recommend you create a free Battle.net account before ticket sales begin, if you haven’t done so already. Please make sure the payment information associated with the account is up-to-date by going to My Payment Options in Battle.net Account Management. Doing these things ahead of time will help speed up the purchasing process for you once tickets go on sale.

2) Entering the Queue

If a certain level of shopping activity has been reached on the Blizzard Store, you will enter a queue before you are able to check out and complete your purchase. The ticket queue allows controlled batches of visitors to smoothly purchase tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.

On the days BlizzCon tickets go on sale, you will be able to initiate a ticket-purchase request from a special streamlined ticket-sales starting page, which will be linked from our websites and forums. From this starting page, you’ll be able to select the number of tickets you want to buy from a drop-down menu, and then click a button to immediately enter the ticket queue.

If you don’t encounter a queue, you will be able to purchase the tickets immediately.

3) In the Queue

Once you’ve entered the queue, you will be redirected to a page which displays an estimate of the time remaining until you reach the front of the queue, along with a meter showing the percentage of ticket stock remaining, updated in real-time. Simply wait at this page (do not close the window or refresh your browser!) until you reach the front of the queue. Please note that being in the queue does not guarantee that you will have the opportunity to purchase a ticket. The system will inform you if tickets sell out before you reach the front of the queue.

4) Finalizing Your Purchase

When your number is called, it’s time to buy those tickets! You will have 15 minutes to finalize all details before your session times out and you are removed from the queue, at which point you would need to begin the process again. If you are unsure of any attendee information now, don’t worry — you won’t need to provide this information until after the ticket purchase is finalized.

Source: HellForge and Blizzard