One of the longest-tenured and beloved video game conventions is going back once again. Bethesda has officially announced the annual QuakeCon 2023, and this time will return to a full in-person event, albeit with some major changes. The company revealed that this year’s QuakeCon will have an emphasis on the Bring Your Own Computer aspect (BYOC) and will require attendees to pre-register and purchase a ticket. In past Quakecons, only those who were going to the BYOC part needed to purchase a ticket, and those who were only interested in the exhibit hall were given free admission. That changes this year, as anyone going will now need to actually have a paid ticket to enter.
This will be the very first time that any Quakecon event will not have an exhibit hall to walk around in and marks a drastic change to how the event ran before the worldwide effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Bethesda states in their blog post that their will be other events besides the BYOC. This includes the QuakeCon Finals Party, the Quake World Championships, and the Tabletop Village. In addition, the company also mentions that there will be several different vendors for fans to check out, but didn’t offer any more details. For those who aren’t aware, the BYOC is a long-standing tradition of QuakeCon where fans literally bring their own PCs and play a Local Area Network (LAN) game of Quake in a giant room The BYOC itself is considered a spectacle as several fans bring in custom setups for their PC to show off while they play a LAN game with others.
As we already mentioned, this will be the first in-person event for QuakeCon since 2019, as for the past three years the event has been digital only. The event will take place in Grapevine, Texas, from August 10-13 with tickets set to be available on April 21. Standard tickets will cost $75, while a Premium package costs $200, and an even higher Elite package will be $400. For those who can’t make it to the event, Bethesda will be livestreaming it on their official Twitch channel with a “full slate of programming,” some of which will be revealed in due time.