The Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival returns in-person in 2023! The first Fan Festival of this cycle is headed in Las Vegas on July 28-29, and Square Enix has finally offered up further details for those that want to attend. Things are going to be a bit different for this year’s event, however.

Fan Festival tickets will cost $199.99 per person. Attendees will need an ID to pick them up at the event, alongside their goody bag of event-specific items.

The twist this year is online ticket sales will be through a lottery system. Players with active subscriptions and a North American Square Enix account can opt-in for the chance to purchase tickets. The opt-in phase will stretch from today, February 17, to Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. PST / 2:59 a.m. EST.

Once the application phase is over, a drawing will be held and the winners will be notified at their Square Enix account email. Those players will get an access code that will allow them to purchase tickets in a window from Monday, March 6, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. PST / 12:00 p.m. EST to Monday, March 13, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. PDT  / 12:00 p.m. EDT. Each holder of an access code can purchase two tickets.

After this lottery, all unsold tickets will go on general sale on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. PDT / 12:00 p.m. EDT. Once again, folks will only be able to purchase two tickets per account.

Final Fantasy XIV has grown in popularity since the first Fan Festival in 2014, so perhaps a lottery is better than the first-come, first-served model of previous events. Again, this is only the first Fan Festival event of this cycle. Fan Festival UK is taking place in London on October 21-21, 2023, while Fan Festival Japan will take place in Tokyo on January 7-8, 2024. It’s likely both events will have a lottery system and require active accounts from those regions to purchase tickets.