With multiple events scattered throughout the world, the Penny Arcade Expo series is one of the largest gaming events on the planet. What started in Seattle as a humble gaming convention with a focus on Indie games, the PAX series now consists of PAX Prime (Seattle, WA), PAX East (Boston, MA), and PAX Australia (Melbourne). As Penny Arcade’s popularity increases, and the Independent community grows, yet another convention will be added to the list of yearly events, with PAX South.
During Penny Arcade’s “Make a Strip” panel this morning, co-founders Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins announced PAX South for next year’s convention series. With PAX Prime and PAX East being on the opposite coastlines of the US, the southern states are left with a length flight either way. As you can probably guess, PAX South covers the southern region of the US, and will take place in San Antonio, TX. While a specific venue was not announced during the panel or in the official press release, PAX South is set for January 23-25. 2015.
While Austin may be the first Texas city that comes to mind for a gaming convention, San Antonio actually has larger indoor venues. Of course, it goes without saying that Austin can definitely support a large amount of fans for an entertainment-based event, as seen with the gaming, music and art festival SXSW (South by Southwest). When it comes to gaming- on both an industry and community level- Texas is one of the most active states in the US. The “Lone Star State” is home to Borderlands and Brothers In Arms developer Gearbox Software, Indie gaming and movie publisher Devolver Digital, and Loadout developer Edge of Reality. Other large companies have several divisions based throughout the state, including EA, Activision Blizzard, id, Bethesda and Zenimax.
PAX South will be joining other Texas-hosted gaming conventions including GDC Austin (Game Developers Conference), QuakeCon (id Software), SGC (ScrewAttack Gaming Convention), Gearbox Community Day, RTX (Rooster Teeth) and GlitchCon.