SEATTLE—PAX West, one of the world’s largest video game conventions and the largest on the U.S.’s west coast, drew crowds of approximately 120,000 people to the Seattle Convention Center Friday, August 29 through Monday, September 1, to play upcoming games, meet with leaders and developers in the video game industry, and attend panels featuring celebrity guests and exciting announcements.
The four-day convention took over both Convention Center buildings – the Summit Building and Arch Building – in addition to nearby hotels and streets blocked off for food trucks and demonstrations/live Tetris games hosted by Red Bull.
Some of the biggest video game publishers were there showcasing upcoming releases with playable demos such as Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Larian Studios, Capcom, Gearbox, Ubisoft, Square Enix and more.
Notable titles included Nintendo’s Pokémon Legends Z-A and Kirby Air Riders, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade Switch 2 Port, FromSoftware’s Elden Ring Switch 2 port, Gearbox Studios’ Borderlands 4, Capcom’s Resident Evil 9: Requiem, Pragmata, and Omimusha: Way of the Sword, Pearl Abyss’ Crimson Desert, GGG’s Path to Exile, and more.
As for upcoming indie games, some standout titles include SuperGiant’s Hades II, Team Cherry’s Silksong (the sequel to the critically acclaimed Hollow Knight), Polished Games’ Be My Horde, and Ocean Drive Studios’ God Save Birmingham and Lost Eidolon: Veil of the Witch.
Also in the Arch Building were live tournaments where gamers competed for wins in Mario Kart 8, Tekken 8, and Fortnite – their performances blasted onto a massive monitor to be enjoyed by audiences.
The Summit Building’s ground floor was transformed into a massive tabletop and trading card arena complete with Magic: The Gathering and Warhammer tournaments, pickup Dungeons and Dragons games where Wizards of the Coast showcased upcoming new subclasses in yet-to-be-released books, and WotC handed out free welcome decks of its new Spider-Man MtG crossover series.
Game Workshop hosted painting workshops for miniatures and Bothell-based Zulu’s Board Game Café also brought their boardgame library where guests could check out board games and play with friends.
Upstairs, within the building’s 62 rooms, totaling 99,620 square-feet of space, guests could find speed runners attempting to break records in how fast they could complete a game, a Nintendo Power museum celebrated the history of the 1988-2010 publication, a free-to-play arcade let guests throw down in air hockey, Street Fighter, and House of the Dead, JackBox Games hosted live party games using smartphones as consoles, and guests could “check out” classic gaming consoles, from the Atari to Nintendo Wii.
Handheld gaming lounges, BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) lan parties, virtual reality, and giveaways were just some of the countless things to keep attendees occupied during their four-day visit.
Voodoo Ranger, in partnership with Borderlands 4, also had a rooftop beer garden selling a fantastic lineup of alcoholic libations for the 21+ crowd.
As for panels, Naoki “Yoshi P” Yoshida (Director of Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XVI) told stories about how he entered Japan’s gaming industry, Hiroshi Minagawa and Kazutoyo Maehiro (with Square Enix) walked crowds through their upcoming remake of Final Fantasy Tactics for the Nintendo Switch 2, Wilbert Roger II discussed how he composed the music for Hell Divers 2 and several Star Wars games, the voice cast and MoCap (Motion Capture) actors of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 shared behind-the-scenes stories of working on Sandfall Interactive’s sleeper indie sensation, Jeremy Crawford (Wizards of the Coast) shared exciting new updates to Dungeons and Dragons – the world’s most popular tabletop role-playing game, and Washinton native Eric “Concerned Ape” Barone discussed how he single handedly developed one of the best-selling video games of all time: indie farming simulator Stardew Valley.
Friday night, Georgia-based video game cover band Bit Brigade wowed crowds with their in-band speed runner, Noah McCarthy playing flawlessly playing through SNES’ Super Mario World while the band’s musicians played the soundtrack live.
There weas no shortage of after party events when the show floor closed at 6 p.m., from karaoke, to Pokémon Go pub crawls, to Cyber Punk-themed raves, to a Square Enix Community event with the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest dev team, to an official after party at Spin Ping Pong bar, and several concerts including a live symphony performing works from Stardew Valley and the 8-Bit Big Band performing retro video game scores at the Moore Theater.
As with any large convention celebrating geek culture, cosplaying was a welcome, and encouraged, addition to the PAX West experience and many attendees came dress-to-impress as their favorite video game or pop culture characters.
Als in attendance was none other than Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and his team to teach the public how the SOS’s office supports Washingtonians through libraries, corporations and charities, civic engagement and elections, preservation of state history and artifacts in the State Archives, and statewide programs like the Address Confidentiality Program, Productivity Board, and Combined Fund Drive.
About PAX
The first Penny Arcade Expo (PAX for short) was organized by Seattle residents Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, authors of the popular Penny Arcade web comic. The two, being avid gamers themselves, wanted to organize an event exclusively for gaming and held their first PAX in 2004 at Bellevue’s Meydenbauer Center. Holkins was also a featured guest offering meet-and-greet and autographing opportunities.
Attendance rapidly outgrew its original venue – tripling from 3,300 its first year to 9,000 in 2005 and up to 19,000 by 2006 – relocating to Washington State Convention Center in 2007. By 2009 Penny Arcade had partnered with ReedPop, the organizers of Seattle’s Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC), the event’s attendance that year was over 39,000. PAX stopped recording attendance numbers in 2011 but by 2013, tickets for the now multi-day event were selling out within the first six hours of going on sale.
Originally intended to be a Seattle-only event, in 2010 PAX expanded to the East Coast hosting PAX East in Boston, turned international in 2013 with PAX Australia in Melbourne, and introduced PAX South in San Antonia, Texas in 2015. ReedPop announced in 2021, however, that it would be discontinuing PAX South due to lack of attendance. To distinguish itself from its expansions, Seattle’s PAX was renamed PAX West in 2015.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
