For the first time in history, the Penny Arcade Convention has completely sold out. Before 2009, there have been tickets for sale at the door, but this time, many video game enthusiasts and geeks alike will be left out in the cold (and possibly rain) in Downtown Seattle.

Craigslist wanted ads for PAX ‘09 tickets have been popping up almost by the hour to try to snatch up leftover tickets from buyers that are unable to attend, or have extra tickets. One ad was entitled “Will trade first born for PAX ‘09 tickets!” while others are offering to pay any (monetary) price asked by a seller.

With this news, I can say without any argument, that the Penny Arcade Convention’s sellout is a glimpse of the bright future for the video game industry, gamers, and the convention itself. PAX began in ‘04 and oddly enough sold 1337 pre-order tickets, which should have given us some kind of idea of what we’re dealing with here in Seattle. Last year, PAX ‘08 sold over 50,000 tickets, and this year’s number has not yet been released but I would imagine it to be closer to 100,000.

Since the downfall of E3 to the real gamer community when it officially became closed to the public and was turned into a strict media event, PAX has become a diamond in the rough, and immensely valuable to the west coast (and international) gamer.

Good luck to those of you that have tickets, and for those of you that don’t… well, looks like you’re shit out ofluck. But either way, I will be there and will plan on documenting PAX ‘09 and posting about it here. And yes, I will be in full ninja garb once again.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment