E3, the largest game show in North America, will be open to the public for the first time.

On February 8th (local time), E3 announced that they will be selling 15,000 tickets to public attendees, starting from February 13th. Previously, E3 only distributed free admission tickets to people in the gaming industry and members of the press, while the general public had to pay a hefty $995 fee to get into the event.

The 15,000 tickets, priced at $250, will give access to all of E3’s weekly show floors, panel discussions, and other events as well. If you register in advance, the tickets will be available for $150.

For a while now, E3 has consistently been asked to open its door to the public. The Entertainment Software Association, which organizes and oversees E3 operations, experimented with real-time events at E3 2016, and eventually decided to open the event to the public for E3 2017.

ESA’s senior VP of communications, Rich Taylor said, "The feedback we heard was clear - [public] wanted to play the games inside the convention center. In addition, exhibitors inside the convention center wanted to have access to the fans. So this year we're bringing the two together."

This year’s E3 will be held for three days from June 13th to 15th PST; at the moment, specific exhibitors and games are not yet revealed. More information can be found on the E3 official website.