Microsoft’s Build conference in San Francisco, easily the company’s biggest event of the year, is always popular. However, tickets for this year’s three-day developer event, taking place March 30 to April 1, were even harder to get than usual. Microsoft said the event sold out in less than 5 minutes — hardly enough time to snag a ticket, especially if the site keeps telling you they’re already sold out.
“The conference sold out in under 5 minutes, however, we encourage developers to register for the wait list should additional tickets open up,” a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Keynotes and select sessions will be also be streamed live starting at 8:30am on Wednesday, March 30. The conference sold out in 45 minutes the previous year.”
Update: And yet Microsoft’s chief developer evangelist Steven Guggenheimer says it was even faster than that.
The previous year we sold out in 20 minutes and in 1 minute this year. Sorry for everyone can't attend in person. We stream on @ch9
— Steven Guggenheimer (@StevenGuggs) January 19, 2016
The previous year, we reported Build 2015 sold out in less than an hour, though whether it was 45 minutes or 20 minutes is apparently unclear at Microsoft. In years past, Microsoft ran out of tickets anywhere between one hour and 24 hours. This was thus a new record.
Guggenheimer announced the opening of registration on Twitter at 9:01 a.m. Pacific:
https://twitter.com/StevenGuggs/status/689492779035045888
However, there were problems nearly immediately. Several developers complained that in less than one minute, the Build website was already claiming tickets, which cost $2,195 each, were all gone: “SOLD OUT – JOIN THE WAITLIST” the site read. Guggenheimer confirmed Microsoft was looking into the issues at 9:14 a.m. Pacific:
Checking to see what is going on with waitlist message
— Steven Guggenheimer (@StevenGuggs) January 19, 2016
And yet, at 9:48 a.m., he confirmed Build 2016 had indeed sold out:
Wow, Build soldout quickly this year. We're working on getting more capacity for next year and we will stream part of it online.
— Steven Guggenheimer (@StevenGuggs) January 19, 2016
While Build is meant for developers, it also features a slew of news. The previous year, Microsoft announced the Windows Holographic Platform, Continnum for Windows 10 phones, its Edge browser, a goal to hit 1 billion Windows 10 devices by April 2018, and tons more.
This year, Microsoft will undoubtedly talk about Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, HoloLens, Visual Studio, .NET, Azure, Xbox, and everything in between. Hopefully the event goes smoothly and the technical issues several developers experienced during registration are only a one-time mishap.