This is the first year that the public was invited to attend E3, the games industry’s biggest event hosted each year in Los Angeles. So far, it’s been something of an adjustment. Case in point is the video above.
Moments after the doors opened today, fans broke into a sprint trying to get in line at the Nintendo booth. I was allowed in early to do some photography there, and as I rounded the corner to make my first appointment at 10 a.m. I heard a roar. Fans streamed in for nearly two minutes, many of them bumping into and jostling one another on their way to stand in line.
We’ve seen stampedes like this at past E3s; here’s last year’s running of the fans as they sprinted to get early hands-on time with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Remember, of course, that today is the last day of the convention. Just imagine what this scene looked like on day one, when the crowd became so large that security decided to open the show floor 15 minutes early to decrease congestion.
The reason fans are moving so quickly is because lines are extremely long. Whether it’s a game demo or the lunch line, no one is getting anywhere very quickly. We talked with a few fans about their experience, which included a five-hour wait to get hands-on anything at the Bethesda booth.
