IGN LIVE 2024
The first ever IGN LIVE event, a huge deal in the gaming world, happened from June 7th to 9th, 2024, at the Magic Box in The Reef, Los Angeles, California. The three days were jam-packed with awesome stuff, including over 20 playable game demos, over 80 playable game stations, tons of giveaways, and other surprises.
Walking up to the venue, I was both excited and a little nervous. This was a major event, and I had no clue what to expect. The sheer size of it was impressive, and I was eager to see what IGN had cooked up for us.
One of the coolest things on the first day was seeing a few cast members from the hit TV show “Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power,” who chatted about the upcoming season and what we could look forward to. Another awesome moment was when a McFarlane staff member showed off a new toy line based on the “Batman Forever” movie.
While waiting for the “Borderlands” cast members and director panel to start, I checked out the game showroom and played the new WWE and Top Spin games from 2K interactive.
As soon as I was done playing, I ran over to see the “Borderlands” movie panel with director Eli Roth and cast members Ariana Greenblatt and Florian Munteanu, who talked about how much fun they had filming the movie despite the pandemic.
Throughout the day, some of the IGN staff were filming live segments of a news bit called “The Daily Fix,” hosted by some of my favorite hosts like Brian Altano and Max Scoville.
Later that day on the second floor, there was a 10th-anniversary celebration of the “John Wick” film with director Chad Stahelski, where he talked about how the film blew up and how amazing Keanu Reeves is.
The second day of the event had great panels featuring the head of Team Sonic, Takashi Iizuka, the guy behind the Sonic video game series, as well as the team developing “Starship Troopers: Extermination,” a co-op first-person shooter game, which brought in Casper Van Dien, who played Johnny Rico in the 1997 “Starship Troopers” film.
After those panels, I went to the game showroom, where WWE superstar Mishin was playing matches in the newly released WWE 2K24 game.
Afterward, I headed over to the main stage to see a live taping of the IGN podcast “Nintendo Voice Chat,” where they ranked their favorite Nintendo characters, and then the IGN Live taping of “Beyond!”, which focuses on PlayStation games.
Another panel I saw before the day ended was when Daemon Hatfield, host & executive producer of IGN, interviewed the team behind Tetris, who were celebrating their 40th anniversary. There was the creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov; Henk Rogers, the founder and chairman of The Tetris Company; and Maya Rogers, the President and CEO of Tetris.
Finally, the third and last day of the event arrived, which I was really pumped for because the Xbox CEO was going to be there to talk about the announcements of the Xbox Showcase.
Before then, The Women of Wrestling were hyping up the crowd, interacting with the IGN hosts, and giving away prizes. Some of the W.O.W. members who attended the event were Genesis, Coach Campanelli, and The Beast.
The Xbox showcase was shown in a room upstairs while the fans were reacting to the announcements, which included some big news. As soon as the showcase was over, everyone made their way to the main stage to see Phil Spencer chat with Ryan McCaffrey, host of “Podcast Unlocked”.
After the interview, I walked around and found Logan Plant, a member of the “Nintendo Voice Chat” podcast show, and we talked about our favorite moments of the event.
As the event was wrapping up, it was time for “GAME SCOOP!”. Host Daemon Hatfield and the other cast members talked about what games they’ve liked so far in the year.
I want to thank IGN for letting me cover the event, and I hope to be there in 2025 for more excitement.
IGN LIVE 2024 GALLERY
