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Print Edition StoriesFriday, September 4, 2009
Penny Arcade gaming conference coming to Boston
By Todd Bishop, Special to Mass High Tech
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Penny Arcade’s busting growth has benefited Boston-area video game enthusiasts, who now can experience the annual video-game enthusiasts’ gathering, which sold out in Seattle several days in advance this year — with more than 70,000 people expected to attend Sept. 4 through Sept. 6 at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle.
Organizers of PAX, as it’s known, plan to satisfy at least part of that demand with a new conference, PAX East, scheduled for March 26 through March 28 in Boston, at the Hynes Convention Center.
PAX started in 2004 in Bellevue, Wash., as an outgrowth of the popular Penny Arcade webcomic. It has grown steadily each year by differentiating itself from events designed primarily for people in the industry. The three-day conference is geared instead for fans — featuring tournaments, sessions about video games, concerts, movies and booths from major game companies including video-game console giants Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.
At more than 70,000 people, the consumer-oriented show would be significantly larger than most gatherings of associations and industry groups at the Seattle convention center. PAX is an important event in the city, but the overall economic impact is difficult to estimate without more information on where attendees are eating their meals and how many are staying in individual hotel rooms, for example, said Dave Blandford, a spokesman for Seattle’s Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The growth of PAX is a bright spot in the video-game industry. Year-to-date sales of games, consoles and accessories stood at $8.16 billion in the U.S. as of July — down 14 percent from the same period last year, according to the NPD Group market research firm.
That growth has also taken off in New England, with large players such as Turbine Inc. in Westwood — which today announced the latest expansion to its Lord of the Rings Online game, Siege of Mirkwood — as well as much-hyped startups like Curt Schilling’s Maynard-based game development firm 38 Studios LLC.
According to Massachusetts state officials, the Department of Business Development worked closely with PAX organizers to bring the East Coast expansion to Boston, versus other possible locales such as New York.
Organizers are careful to point out that it’s not just video games driving the interest in PAX. Tabletop games are also big among some attendees, for example.
“It started as a very small thing, but it’s turned into this celebration of the culture that we all take part in,” said Robert Khoo, show director and president of operations of Penny Arcade Inc., a 12-person company based in Seattle.
Advance tickets for the Seattle PAX were $30 for single-day passes and $50 for three-day passes. Prices at the door were to be $35 and $55, respectively, had the event not sold out. PAX East will use the same pricing structure. After the Seattle event sold out, three-day passes were being sold for as much as $150 on Craigslist in the days leading up to the show.
Highlights of past years included a 2007 keynote address by Wil Wheaton, the actor who played Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” He delivered what amounted to a colorful State of the Union of video games, and reminisced about growing up playing games in shopping-mall arcades and on home consoles.
The Penny Arcade webcomic is produced by artist Mike Krahulik and writer Jerry Holkins, who use their alter-egos Gabe and Tycho to celebrate and lampoon gaming culture. A perennial highlight of PAX are the sessions in which Krahulik and Holkins answer fan questions.
PAX East will have many similar elements to Seattle’s PAX — including the presence of Krahulik and Holkins, and video-game tournaments — but it will also have its own identity, Khoo said.
“It will be a unique enough show where it will also attract people from the West Coast,” he said.
From a financial standpoint, Penny Arcade Expo operates right around break-even every year, Khoo said. The privately held Penny Arcade Inc. overall remains profitable, Khoo said, noting the site hasn’t been hit by the advertising slump.
“A lot of our clients took a look at their portfolio of sites that they would buy advertising on and focused on the ones that were doing really well in terms of performance,” he said. Because of that, he said, “we weren’t affected at all.”
Todd Bishop is co-founder and managing editor for TechFlash.com, a tech-focused affiliate of Mass High Tech in Seattle.
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