First details for August celebration of all things gaming revealed; 30,000 expected to converge on downtown Seattle for the show; Freezepop and Jonathan Coulton to perform.
Popular Web comic Penny Arcade has a number of spin-offs, from customizable card games to books to video games, but perhaps the most successful of its ancillary ventures has been the annual Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX. Developed as a celebration of all forms of gaming, from pen-and-paper role-playing games to the latest video game consoles, the convention has grown in size each year it has been held.
Today Penny Arcade revealed the first details of the fourth annual PAX, the largest one to date. Slated for August 24-26, the expo has outgrown its old venue and will be moved to the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in downtown Seattle, Washington. The extra room afforded by the move will make the 200,000 square feet of floor space at this year's PAX more than twice the size of last year's show. More space means more people, and the organizers are "conservatively" expecting 30,000 attendees at PAX 2007.
That doesn't quite match the attendance of last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, which had more than 60,000 visitors. However, it might not be long before the growing expo rivals E3's largest attendance figures; PAX attendance has doubled with each new show.
In addition to a show floor filled with contests, tournaments, and unreleased games, PAX 2007 will play host to the annual Omegathon three-day gaming competition, as well as a number of musical acts. Penny Arcade writer Jerry Holkins told GameSpot today that Jonathan Coulton ("Code Monkey," "Re: Your Brains") and Freezepop (whose music can be heard in games like Amplitude and Guitar Hero) will be performing at PAX 07.
To register for the show, visit the official Web site.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
I went to PAX last year, had a blast. Here's some of the pictures that I took: http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/Arklier/PAX/ It was very, very crowded though. Waiting for some of the panels, you were definitely getting to know your neighbors in line.
[QUOTE="datniccah187"]I've heard of penny arcade but i haven't checked it out yet. Maybe i will right now?[/QUOTE] Hey, man. Welcome to the Internet.
with these comparisons now being drawn to E3 i really hope that PAX doesnt also stast to suffer the same bloat that E3 did. While it isnt a trade event and is actually about play over business, it still could find unique ways of stinking as it grows larger and larger......i for one hope it doesnt though (even though i am not close enough to ever attend)
Hope we can have a whole PAX thing in GS with all videos and stuffs like for CES and Previous E3s.
I really like Penny Arcade, and I didn`t know they had an expo. Seems pretty promising, and I hope they can fill up the gap left by E3.
I'm all for competition in virtually all things, game shows included. With the complete d**k move that the E3 people made, other shows trying to fill that void is important. Lets see how it all shakes out.
last year was awesome..... go if you can :) it was the best 3 days of my summer.......sounds pathetic but it really was heh
@ okassar, E3 got downsized after last years its not going to be a public event like it used to be, so like DarkSoldier56 mentioned gamers, and developers may replace E3 with PAX to preview and show case new games respectively.
Meh,if PAX ever does get 60,000 people,E3 would go up to like 90,000-ish.E3 is huge,but ya dunno,Pax can break the E3 tradition as the last E3 was full of crazy fanboys that ruined everythng and made it a bad experience.
E3 is no more, PAX now reigns! I think they can handle it. E3 made a bad move, and PA just said 'We will just become the next E3 and more!' Good for them, I hope I can go to this year's PAX.
Javier, you got my number on that one. TimmyB's CAD ftw! PAX = still good idea. hope it doesn't downsize anytime soon.
So has PAX TV sued them yet for using the name? :D Just kidding, dont even know if PAX TV is still around.
I wanted to go last year, but wasn't able to. Hopefully I'll be able to make it this time. The problem is going there without a chaperone.
Poor Tycho, he's such a wuss he bought the burning crusade *shakes head sadly, dies a little inside for the poor little addict :( * hehehehe. Yeah I read the site regularly :P
of my news from that site. All the comics are always about news I have heard/read about elsewhere. Are you the only magnificently naive person on this site? No. Are you one of the few magnificently naive people on this site who likes to garner attention to themselves by criticizing something everyone else enjoys? I hope.
i've always thought pax would be cool but it's kind of a moot point if you dont live in or perhaps near seattle, kind of a bummer.....wish there were sattelite versions or somesuch closer to home
Am I the only one who believes Penny Arcade to be a cheesy hack operation whose moderately popularity can best be described by the theory that modern conveniences have turned us, the human race, into jelly-bellied, lazy-minded simps who collect their data regarding the world around them via sitcom and internet forwards?" I AGREE!! this thing is so stupid, and generation Y will be the downfall of society because of it. than afterwards i am sure there will tons of weblogs webcomics and chainmails of how stupid society was before we got rid of it
Generic_Dude says: "Am I the only one who believes Penny Arcade to be a cheesy hack operation whose moderately popularity can best be described by the theory that modern conveniences have turned us, the human race, into jelly-bellied, lazy-minded simps who collect their data regarding the world around them via sitcom and internet forwards? " Maybe not the only one but I certainly disagree with you sir. Good day.
It will be awhile before PennyArcade forum fanboys come and start text fighting Generic_Dude and hitting for 4 hps.
I agree completely Generic_Dude, you summed up Penny Arcade very well. And I live in Seattle and there's too many scary nerds here as it is.
It really is amazing that their little get-together has grown into a huge convention in only a few years. Good for them, it looked to be crammed full last year. They'll need the room.
Am I the only one who believes Penny Arcade to be a cheesy hack operation whose moderately popularity can best be described by the theory that modern conveniences have turned us, the human race, into jelly-bellied, lazy-minded simps who collect their data regarding the world around them via sitcom and internet forwards?
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