The Race to Replace E3... First at Bat - The Penny Arcade Expo and The San Diego Comic-Con
Last year I discussed the death of E3, the largest video game trade show/PR event in the world, which has now been gutted, stuffed and placed on the mantelpiece of gaming history. In its postmortem comes the E3 Media & Business Summit, a corporate business conference. In addition to business dealings, the show will include a small amount of press, but allowed by limited invitation only which will cause a huge decrease in coverage, especially with non-gaming outlets.
This leaves a major hole in the gaming industry that desperately needs filling. Many tradeshows and conventions have stepped up to try and replace the PR side of E3, one such show is the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) from the creators of the online comic strip Penny Arcade. This year PAX has doubled their size in preparation of the ex-E3 overflow, with 200,000 square feet of videogame goodness with hopes to entice 30,000 hardcore gamers. The drawbacks are the out of the way location in Seattle and that PAX is really only known among hardcore gamers. It is doubtful that non-gaming press will really pick up on the shows buzz.
Personally, my vote goes to the San Diego Comic-Con, the world's largest pop culture contention. This show has grown from a simple a comic book convention, to a cult entertainment extravaganza of movies, TV, animation and most recently, video games. Last years show broke records with 114,000 attendees, plus 9,000 exhibitors and staff. The only drawback is that with a convention of this size and fame space is extremely limited, so overblown gaming booths are less likely.