In 2004, the folks at Penny Arcade decided they wanted a show exclusively for gaming. Sure, comics, anime, and other nerd hobbies were cool, and those activities all had their own shows… so what about games? From that idea spawned a small 4,500 person event in Bellevue, Washington, focused on the culture and community that is gaming.

Since then, the show hasn’t looked back. Doubling in size each year until venue capacities were reached, in 2010 the show expanded into Boston for PAX East, drawing tens of thousands of attendees in the inaugural year. The shows in Seattle and Boston represent the two largest gaming events in North America!

Exhibit Hall
Publishers and Developers putting their best foot forward with unreleased games and hardware? What more could you ask for?

Before PAX existed, the only place in North America you could see an E3 style exhibition floor was… well, it was E3. Since that show was for industry insiders only, PAX has been the only place the public could see, hear and experience the insanity that is a game industry expo hall. With over a hundred thousand square feet of show floor and all genres, platforms and styles of games represented, this area makes for one of the highlights to the PAX experience.

Handheld Lounge
It started with an open area that fire marshals wouldn’t let us setup a booth in and slowly became one of the mainstays to PAX. With each show offering hundreds of beanbags for your use, these organically created meetup areas allow those with 3DS’, PSPs and Vitas to congregate and play to their hearts content. Heck, we’ve even seen some Nomads in there. Grab a beanbag, occupy a corner and look for those ad-hoc games!