The countdown to Gen Con 2018 is at 227 days as of this posting, Gen Con announced they are making a few slight changes to badges for the upcoming 2018 show.
To simplify things, Gen Con will have just one price for each badge type in 2018. They have adjusted pricing to uniform costs to reflect this change. You can buy your badge beginning on January 14, 2018. Badges will remain on sale while supplies last. Updated 2018 pricing is as follows :
| Badge Type | Price | |
| 4-Day | $110 | |
| Thursday | $60 | |
| Friday | $60 | |
| Saturday | $70 | |
| Sunday | $15 | |
| Trade Day | $200 | |
| VIG | $600/Returning VIG’s – $650/New VIG’s |
Changes Coming To Sunday
In prior years, Gen Con offered a package of four family fun badges at a discounted rate. After reviewing Gen Con 50 data, the typical Family Fun Day purchaser bought two or fewer badges as part of their Family Fun Day Package. To address this inefficiency, They have replaced the Family Fun Day Package. Don’t worry, Sunday badges will remain a great value, but you will not need to purchase the package to attend the convention on that day. Instead, Gen Con will offer single-attendee Sunday badges at a flat rate of $15. In addition, we will raise the maximum age that children can enter the convention free of charge.
Kids Ages 10-And-Under Now Free
At prior Gen Con conventions, children ages eight-and-under received free admission into the convention with a Child Wristband. Starting with Gen Con 2018, children ages 10-and-under will now be able to attend free of charge. Children ages 11-and-up will need a regular badge to gain access to the convention.
I’m all about simplifying things, if they’re complicated – BUT, this doesn’t seem more complicated than it used to be, except for the Sunday Family badges. They fail to mention that this ‘simplification’ is now more expensive. More expensive is fine, but to camouflage it in saying they did it for simplicity sake is sounds dishonest.
Raising the prices of the 4-day badge by $20, is significant. Cutting off ‘on-site’ and after pre-registration badge sales is not going to do anything – remember Gencon 2017 (Gencon 50) sold out long before the show started. So, not having sales AFTER the pre-registration window does almost nothing.
Gencon 50 had approximately 60,000 unique visitors, lets do some fun math. Lets just say a third of those were 4-day badges. 20,000 4-day badges sold. This year, increasing the price $20 is a pretty big increase in revenue for Gencon LLC – $400,000. Granted yes, I’m absolutely POSITIVE that Indy is charging them more, and probably a LOT more based on their sell-out numbers last year.
I don’t mind paying the extra $20 per badge at all, prices often go up (which means an extra $60 since I buy 3 badges for me and my two sons). The previous Gencon 50, and the Gencon 2016 badge prices were the same. What I am perturbed about, is that they’re trying to use their marketing speak in hiding the fact that they’re increasing costs in such a way. They absolutely know we’re gamers by nature and can, and do, sniff this kind of BS out easily.
All that said. Can’t wait until August! 🙂
Oh, and I’ll probably have to purchase badges earlier than ever this year, if the sell-out last year is indication.
**** Last Year’s “Complicated” Pricing:
Badge Type Pre-Registration Price Standard Price
4-Day (Sold Out) $90 $120
Thursday (Sold Out) $55 $75
Friday (Sold Out) $55 $75
Saturday (Sold Out) $55 $75