Los Angeles Comic Con is returning on October 4 to October 6 with more gaming fandom and other elements of pop culture like comics, sci-fi and anime.
The event has become L.A.’s largest pop culture event, and today the exp released its entire lineup of panels, entertainment and activations. It began expanding last year after the demise of E3, the big North American game trade show which shut down.
The show aims to bring fans their most requested celebrity guests for panels and photograph/autograph opportunities, while welcoming new key partnerships with brands such as IGN to elevate the entire experience.
“Every year, it’s our goal to give attendees the most diverse, eclectic and inspiring show, that lets them rediscover why they’re fans in the first place,” said Chris DeMoulin, CEO/GM of Los Angeles Comic Con parent company CEI, in a statement. “This year, we’re really touching on the nostalgia strings, bringing together some of our most requested guests and panels from the epic classic films we all know and love, while also highlighting the works of new creatives.”
Join us for GamesBeat Next!
GamesBeat Next is connecting the next generation of video game leaders. And you can join us, coming up October 28th and 29th in San Francisco! Take advantage of our buy one, get one free pass offer. Sale ends this Friday, August 16th. Join us by registering here.
DeMoulin added, “We’re also continuing to embrace our growing gaming audience by doubling down on our West Hall activations. L.A. Comic Con 2024 will celebrate the creativity, artistry, diversity, and passion of being an Angelino and a Comic Con fan overall.”
LA Comic Con 2024 will feature over 300 panels and programming across the three-day event to showcase some of the most recognized and beloved names in pop culture. Throughout the weekend, there will be opportunities for fans to take photos and get autographs from their favorite talent. The main stage will feature some of the most anticipated L.A. Comic Con panels in recent years, including a reunion panel for the cast of The Addams Family, featuring Anjelica Huston, several Star Wars panels featuring Ewan McGregor, Rosario Dawson and more, and a live simulcast of the Back to the Future panel with Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Tom Wilson and Lea Thompson.
Additionally, L.A. Comic Con is teaming up with IGN to broadcast all the highlights and best moments during the weekend. L.A. Comic Con will introduce new and exciting gaming activations to the West Hall , including Gonna Need Milk’s inaugural Milk Cup LAN Fortnite Championship featuring 99 of the best women gamers competing for $250,000, the largest women’s eSports prize pool in North American history.
West Hall Experience Featuring Gaming & Anime
The gaming experience will be expanded. IGN will be streaming content live from the South Hall Main Stage and the West Hall Gaming Stage all weekend along, including content related to guests, activations panels, and more. All of L.A. Comic Con’s gaming, entertainment, and anime content will be carried across all IGN platforms to fans all over the USA and around the world.
The new and exciting “Organized Play” activation is tailored to suit diverse gaming passions. Whether you’re drawn to the adrenaline-fueled intensity of the fighting game community, with epic showdowns in Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6 or prefer the wholesome competition in Super Smash Bros. It also has Nintendo games like Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Mario Party Superstars.
In the Freeplay zone, gamers can enjoy some of the hottest games on PC and console. Covering a range of classics to the newest releases, this hangout spot gives fans a chance to play games with others during the show.
On Saturday October 5, the finals will take place for the Fortnite tournament, the Milk Land Championships. There are 33 teams of three each competing and they’re all female gamers.
Gonna Need Milk noted that 46% of all gamers are females, but less than 2% are in the top ranks of the people who are making a living in the industry. The session will be broadcast live on Twitch and YouTube, while IGN will offer highlights for the event with a prize pool of $250,000.
There will also be an artist alley area in the Gaming and Anime Hall that is specifically artists who do artwork for games and anime. Instead of having just one artist alley that’s over in the South Hall that’s everybody, the show split it up and brought about 150 artists who do art that is specific to Gaming and Anime that will be in the same hall.
Team Liquid is also coming with its influences, a store and tons of merch. Overall, the event should draw around 100,000 people. The event is expected to be about 20 times the size of the first show in 2021, which was during the lifting of COVID. Last year, the show drew 85,000.
DeMoulin said the gaming experience is growing because LA is the creative center of so many industries.
“It’s not just the studios, movies, TV, and streaming, but so many of the video game creators and developers and companies are also based here,” he said. “That’s all part of pop culture. The games influence entertainment as much as entertainment influences games, and so being a pop culture convention, more than a comic convention, we felt the need to expand into all the areas that are relevant to what’s going on in pop culture and entertainment in Los Angeles.”
Tickets for L.A. Comic Con’s 2024 event are currently available for purchase via this link.
Source link
