It’s not every day that a pop culture website rises above and makes its own convention. For those who enjoy IGN personalities and seeing some new developments from popular video games and movies, IGN Live was the perfect place. The convention started on Friday, June 7th, and went on until Sunday, June 9th. It was held at the Magic Box just outside of Downtown Los Angeles.

There were plenty of reveals inlcuding several new games from places like Nightdive Studios’ remake of The Thing from PS2, Xbox, and PC. It was around the clock from opening to closing with reveals, trailers, demos, gameplay, and more. The main hall was somewhat cramped, but that was because of the sheer amount of activities to do. You could just park yourself on a LoveSac seat and watch the entire day. They also had a booth selling merch for the event, gaming properties, collectibles, and more. Even if this was a smaller event, it felt like a slice of a bigger convention.

Outside of the main hall, there was also a hall filled to the brim with demos for upcoming games. Arcade1UP had a special section with arcade cabinets for Killer Instinct, NFL Blitz, Street Fighter, and other popular classic arcade games. There was also a wing on the other end of the hall with classic arcade cabinets set up for free play. In between those, you could play WWE 2K24, the Playdate handheld, Steam Decks with all kinds of PC games available to play, and even displays for a totally Gamer’ed-out Toyota, and an enemy from Elden Ring.

How Can They Improve For Next Year?

The biggest issues I had with IGN Live were logistical. Getting into the event was a strain, especially with a press pass. It took waiting in multiple lines, going to the front, only to be told, “no, you actually need to get in THAT line.” It was incredibly frustrating after three times of this and looking over at the General Admission line being empty. It wasn’t any fault of the security staff, they were just doing their jobs keeping people safe, but it was definitely an issue that could be shored up with more accurate signs.

The other thing that was frustrating was finding where things were. There were two floors to IGN Live, and the inside signage wasn’t straightforward. That wasn’t helped by employees who didn’t know where anything was. I was told four different answers to “where is the panel room?” That’s a massive mistake and it made me miss a panel at the start of the day.

The actual content of IGN Live was great, but like all large-scale events, it’s hard to get things to run perfectly. Logistical problems are the easiest to fix for future installments, so if that’s the case, IGN has a hit on its hands.

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