List of PAX events
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PAX Pax or PAX may refer to: Peace * Peace (Latin: ''pax'') ** Pax (goddess), the Roman goddess of peace ** Pax, a truce term * Pax (liturgy), a salutation in Catholic and Lutheran religious services * Pax (liturgical object), an object formerly kiss ...
events. This list includes the annual events PAX East, PAX West, PAX South, PAX Australia, and PAX Dev.


2000s


2004

On April 12, 2004, the authors of ''
Penny Arcade ''Penny Arcade'' is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website ''loonygames.com''. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have establish ...
'' announced PAX, the ''Penny Arcade'' Expo. PAX 2004 was a two-day event held at the
Meydenbauer Center Meydenbauer Center is a convention center in Bellevue, Washington. It is located adjacent to Bellevue City Hall The Bellevue City Hall is a government office building and city hall in Bellevue, Washington. The current city hall, located in ...
in Bellevue, Washington from August 28–29, which they hoped would turn into an annual event. Several exhibitors, including Warner Bros., Microsoft, Rooster Teeth and Ubisoft, showcased videos and playable demos of their upcoming games at PAX 2004. Microsoft allowed attendees to experience a multiplayer level of '' Halo 2'' months before it hit stores in addition to a number of other Xbox games, while Ubisoft showed '' Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory'' and ''
Ghost Recon 2 ''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2'' is a tactical shooter video game developed by Red Storm Entertainment and published by Ubisoft for Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. A Microsoft Windows version was planned but cancelled in April 2005 in favor of ...
''. Warner Bros. brought all of its E3 assets for '' The Matrix Online'' to the show as well as several hands-on stations for the game. Included amongst the events of the first PAX were live musical performances by bands including
The Minibosses Minibosses is an American progressive rock band originally from Northampton, Massachusetts and now located in Phoenix, Arizona. They are known for their video game music covers, which are instrumental rock variations of the theme music from cla ...
, panels featuring ''Penny Arcade'' creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins as well as others in the video game industry, and the Omegathon, a contest where twenty contestants played a series of games for a chance at winning an excessively large video game collection worth an excess of $25,000. The contestants competed in a tabletop dice game called ''Diceland'', '' Halo'', '' Mario Kart: Double Dash'', '' Dance Dance Revolution'', '' Doom'' and the original home version of '' Pong''. Sean Celaya defeated Kevin Potter in the final round to take home the grand prize becoming the PAX 2004 Omegathon champion. Penny Arcade claimed that precisely 1337 (or " leet") people pre-registered, to which Holkins mused, "though I ordinarily shun leet-speak that number clearly implies the blessing of gaming deities." Roughly 3,300 people attended the event.


2005

PAX 2005 took place from August 26–28 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington, where the first PAX was held. PAX 2005, unlike its predecessor, occupied the entire center, effectively doubling the usable floor space. Sponsors included
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft and NCsoft, among others. Musical guests included the rock groups
Minibosses Minibosses is an American progressive rock band originally from Northampton, Massachusetts and now located in Phoenix, Arizona. They are known for their video game music covers, which are instrumental rock variations of the theme music from cl ...
and
The NESkimos The NESkimos is an independent American video game music cover band from St. Augustine, Florida. It is known for songs based on video game music, and covers of songs from popular television shows and movies. The name is a portmanteau combinin ...
, self-professed "professional hardcore gangster rapper" mc chris, pianists
Martin Leung Martin Leung () is an American pianist. He plays classical music and is known as Video Game Pianist. He gained recognition for playing video game music on the piano, both in concert venues and in online videos. In July 2004, a video of him playin ...
and Connie Lin, nerdcore hiphopper
MC Frontalot Damian Hess (born December 3, 1973), better known by his stage name MC Frontalot, is an American rapper and web designer. Hess began releasing music as MC Frontalot in 1999. His first successes came through Song Fight!, an online songwriting and ...
, and rap/funk group Optimus Rhyme, who performed live in two separate concerts in a massive theater. Events from PAX 2004 such as Pitch Your Game Idea,
Red vs. Blue ''Red vs. Blue'', often abbreviated as ''RvB'', is an American web series created by Burnie Burns with his production company Rooster Teeth. The show is based on the setting of the military science fiction first-person shooter series and media fr ...
, a screening of the 1989 film ''The Wizard'', and Penny Arcade Q&A made encore appearances. New events included Beat The Pros and industry panels on online gaming, the video game marketing process, and controversy in the industry. Omegathon II was an even more elaborate affair than its predecessor. Krahulik said that, " t PAX 2005we will deliver an even bigger prize to the winner of the Omegathon." It was revealed that prize would be the complete NES video game library, with a claimed value of at least $10,099.99. The prize was locked in a large cage in the exhibition room and also included two
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
-themed Alienware gaming PCs, one of which would go to the winner and the other to the runner-up. Contestants competed in the tabletop game ''
Diceland ''Diceland'' is a tabletop game played with collectible sets of dice designed by Toivo Rovainen and James Ernest and released in 2002 by Cheapass Games. Players roll paper cut-out octahedral dice into a combat arena. The dice are then used in th ...
'', '' Mario Kart: Double Dash'', '' Katamari Damacy'', '' Karaoke Revolution'', '' Quake'', and the Atari 2600 game ''
Combat Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...
''. In a four-round match, Luke "Coreside" Armstrong defeated Will "LeRoy" Garroutte by a single point to win the best-of-three series 2-1-1 and take home the grand prize. In total, more than 9,000 gamers attended PAX 2005, almost triple the previous year's attendance. In response to
Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
, Penny Arcade auctioned off the original pencil sketch of the PAX 2005 program cover on eBay with the profit to be given to the
American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...
. It was sold to Christian Boggs for the final price of $8,700. Mr. Boggs also placed the winning bid of $20,000 on an auction to appear in a Penny Arcade comic strip at the 2005 Child's Play Charity Dinner.


2006

PAX 2006 was held from August 25–27. The Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue was again used as the venue, although the Tabletop Gaming area was moved offsite to the ballrooms at the nearby Red Lion hotel. Exhibit space at PAX 06 completely sold out in less than three months, with exhibitors including Nintendo, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Turbine Inc, Technomancer Press, NCSoft, Rooster Teeth, Creative Labs, Wizards of the Coast, and nVidia. According to Krahulik, there were 19,323 attendees. In the Omegathon, returning Omeganaut Will "LeRoy" Garroutte defeated David "Davertron" Davis in the final round of the Omegathon: head to head Tetris. LeRoy took away a brand new Scion car fully loaded with custom wheels, custom sound, LCD TV, Xbox 360 Premium, wireless controllers, and more. Davertron left with an Xbox 360 Premium and $500 Best Buy gift card, and returned as an Omeganaut in 2007. Holkins and PA business manager Robert Khoo led the way into Omegathon Round 5, '' Guitar Hero II''. After playing through "Trippin on a Hole In a Paper Heart" on expert, Holkins smashed the guitar on stage. Krahulik and Holkins announced the first ever ''Penny Arcade'' video game titled ''
On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness On, on, or ON may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * On (band), a solo project of Ken Andrews * ''On'' (EP), a 1993 EP by Aphex Twin * ''On'' (Echobelly album), 1995 * ''On'' (Gary Glitter album), 2001 * ''On'' (Imperial Teen album), 200 ...
: Episode One'' (which has since been released) and that the game would feature ''PA'' characters in episodic adventures. Details were few; when asked what the game was about, Holkins replied "Gabe. Tycho. And Cthulhu." Krahulik and Holkins also announced a Penny Arcade annual scholarship, wherein one applicant with an intention to work in the game industry will be awarded $10,000 toward tuition expenses. Several game companies ran large prize tournaments and giveaways, including ArenaNet ($10,000 prize tourney), TableStar ($2,500 prize tourney), and Nvidia (several thousand dollars' worth of video cards).


2007

The fourth annual Penny Arcade Expo took place August 24–27 and experienced its first year within the confines of the of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, more than doubling the space used to house PAX 2006. The massive
Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo or Electronic Entertainment Experience in 2021) is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publisher ...
(E3) was heavily downsized in 2006, which allowed the growing Penny Arcade Expo to become the biggest gamer festival in North America. Headliners for 2007's PAX included Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, as well as others such as Ubisoft, NCSoft, THQ, Wizards of the Coast,
Namco-Bandai is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...
, Vivendi, Konami and 45 other game publishers and developers. The 2007 keynote speech was delivered by Wil Wheaton. Attendance was reported at 39,000. For the final round of the Omegathon, Ryan "Accalon" Zack and Ben "MNC Dover" Gray competed on never before seen levels of '' Halo 3''. Accalon won the grand prize, $5000 and a trip to the Tokyo Game Show. While the convention was housed on three of the floors of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, the exhibition hall was certainly a busy place, featuring educational, video game and tabletop exhibitors, as well as retailers. The layout of the exhibition hall allowed visitors to peruse through a variety of displays, offering places where they could win their weight in Ramen noodles or enter the World's Smallest Dungeon, as hosted by Technomancer Press.


2008

PAX 2008 was held from August 29–31 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. The pre-show attendance estimate was 45,000, but this was soon thought to be a low guess. The final count of tickets sold was reported as 58,500, including 45,000 pre-registered tickets. The 2008 keynote was delivered by Ken Levine. The exhibition hall space was doubled from that of 2007, and tabletop gaming and an additional panel room was located in the Pike Street Annex of the convention center, the first time this space has been used for PAX. Despite the large increase in convention space, overflow still occurred at some events. New for 2008 was the PAX 10, a judged selection of self-submitted independent games on which attendees voted for a favorite. PAX 10 selections include Chronotron,
the Maw ''The Maw'' is an action-adventure video game developed by Twisted Pixel Games and released for Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The game centers on the extraterrestrial Frank and a purple, amorphous creature called The Maw, who have crash-landed ...
, and Schizoid. To account for crowds, one empty exhibition room was explicitly reserved for the purpose of holding queues for the popular events in the main theater and other queues as needed. PAX 2008 came to a close with Fallout and Geko playing ''Vs. Excitebike'', again for $5000 and a trip to the Tokyo Game Show; Geko was victorious.


2009

PAX 2009 was held from September 4–6 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. The total attendance of the convention was 60,750. The keynote speaker was
Ron Gilbert Ron Gilbert (born January 1, 1964) is an American video game designer, video-game designer, video game programmer, programmer, and video game producer, producer. His games are generally focused on interactive story-telling, and he is arguably bes ...
. Musical guests included previous performers Anamanaguchi, Freezepop, Jonathan Coulton,
Molly Lewis Molly Lewis (aka Sweetafton23) is an American musician who is known for her ukulele playing and who rose to prominence on the Internet. She plays both covers and original songs. Her original music consists of comedic songs that deal with relevan ...
and MC Frontalot, along with first-time PAX appearances by
Metroid Metal is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirate (Metroid), Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the powe ...
and Paul & Storm. For the first time, PAX occupied the entire convention center to accommodate an increase in attendees. Despite the increase in capacity, two days before the start of the show, PAX passes were sold out for the first time. Penny Arcade then announced that no passes would be sold on-site, however circumstances allowed on-site sales of 1,000 extra one-day passes each for Saturday and Sunday. After many attendees reported feeling sick, an H1N1 outbreak was later confirmed. At least 100 cases of H1N1 virus infections were confirmed in attendees after the convention.


2010s


2010

The first PAX East was held from March 26–28 at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. A partnership was arranged with Reed Exhibitions to handle the logistics of the expo. This event, first announced in August 2008, was the first Penny Arcade Expo outside Washington state. On December 23, 2009, Mike Krahulik announced that the number of pre-registrants indicate PAX East Coast may exceed the number of attendees of any previous PAX. It was later announced in January 2010 that tickets for PAX East were close to selling out, and that attendance would most likely be capped as the previous PAX 2009, leaving little-to-no tickets being available at the door for the event. On February 3, 2010, Penny Arcade Expo's business head Robert Khoo updated his Twitter page with word that 3-day badges had sold out for the event. Later in February 2010 the lineup of exhibitors and panel discussions were announced for the full weekend, along with the announcement of the musical guests planned to perform at the event, such as Anamanaguchi, Metroid Metal, MC Frontalot, The Protomen, the Video Game Orchestra and Jonathan Coulton. The keynote speaker was Wil Wheaton, who had previously given the keynote at PAX Prime 2007. The final attendance count was revealed to be 52,290 attendees for the full weekend of PAX East. Plans have been confirmed to use the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) for future PAX East conventions, likely due to complaints of overcrowding and cramped event halls at the much smaller Hynes Convention Center. Penny Arcade has signed an agreement to keep the show in Boston through 2013. PAX Prime 2010 was held from September 3–5 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. Attendance was reported at 67,600, compared to that of PAX Prime 2009's 60,750. The keynote was given by Warren Spector. Musical guests included Anamanaguchi, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Metroid Metal, Minibosses, Paul and Storm, Martin O'Donnell, and
The Protomen The Protomen are an American rock band, who started their career on and are perhaps most widely known for composing concept albums loosely based on the video game series '' Mega Man''. Their stage names are largely references to pop culture film ...
. For the first time since occupying the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, PAX Prime 2010 included events at offsite locations. Instead of occupying just the exposition hall at the center, the keynote speech, large panels, and concerts were held at
Benaroya Hall Benaroya Hall is the home of the Seattle Symphony in Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. It features two auditoria, the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, a 2500-seat performance venue, as well as the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital H ...
. The Pike St. Annex (since renamed to The Conference Center) was used (as it was in 2007), as well as the registration and one panel room located at the nearby Sheraton. These changes allowed PAX Prime 2010's expo hall to double in size vs. 2009. Notable games included '' Star Wars: The Old Republic'', ''
Duke Nukem Forever ''Duke Nukem Forever'' is a 2011 first-person shooter game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is the fourth main installment in the ''Duke Nukem'' series and the sequel to ''Duke ...
'', '' Portal 2'', '' League of Legends'', '' Guild Wars 2'', '' Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds,'' ''
Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a v ...
'', ''
Sonic Colors (known as ''Sonic Colours'' in the PAL region) is a 2010 platform game published by Sega. It follows Sonic's quest to stop his nemesis Doctor Eggman from enslaving an alien race and taking over the world. The gameplay is similar to prior ''Son ...
,'' '' Epic Mickey'', and '' Halo: Reach.''


2011

PAX East 2011 was held from March 11–13 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The BCEC boasts a total area of , over the Hynes' including the theater and meeting rooms The year's musical guests included Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Metroid Metal, Paul and Storm, The Protomen, and the Video Game Orchestra. The keynote speaker was
Jane McGonigal Jane McGonigal (born October 21, 1977) is an American author, game designer, and researcher. McGonigal advocates using mobile and digital technology to channel positive attitudes and collaboration in a real-world context. Biography Early years ...
Being held for the first time in 2011, PAX Dev is an event exclusive to the game development community. It took place on the two days prior to PAX Prime 2011, August 24 and 25, at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. There were 750 attendees, all of whom are involved in game development. Press were not allowed to attend the event. PAX Prime 2011 was held from August 26–28 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. The event brought in over 70,000 attendees, breaking the attendance record set at PAX East 2011 and making it the largest PAX to date. The keynote was delivered by
David Jaffe David Scott Jaffe (born April 13, 1971) is an American video game designer best known for creating the ''Twisted Metal'' and ''God of War'' series. Biography Jaffe is originally from Birmingham, Alabama and currently resides in San Diego, Cali ...
. Musical guests included the familiar performances of The MiniBosses, Metroid Metal, MC Frontalot, Paul & Storm, Jonathan Coulton. In addition, Supercommuter and the
Video Game Orchestra Video Game Orchestra (VGO) is a Boston-based project that performs its own "rockestral" arrangements of video game music with a rock band, vocals, and orchestra. The project was created by Shota Nakama, a Boston-based producer from Okinawa, Japa ...
made debut performances. Notable events included Halo Fest - a celebration of the first 10 years of '' Halo'' history.


2012

PAX East 2012 was held from April 6–8 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. All of the passes sold out except for single-day Sunday passes (due to the event being held on Easter Weekend). The Exhibition Hall held over 160 booths, including game design companies such as Riot Games and Electronic Arts, hardware companies such as Alienware/
Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
and Xbox ( Microsoft), and other various companies. PAX East also held a console freeplay area, where attendees could play games such as '' Deus Ex: Human Revolution'', ''
Dance Central 2 ''Dance Central 2'' is a music rhythm game for the Xbox 360 and is the sequel to ''Dance Central''. It was released in October 2011. Plot Dr. Tan is monitoring the status of the area in The Airship, laughing while doing so. The player first me ...
'', ''
Tony Hawk Ride ''Tony Hawk: Ride'' is a spin-off in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series of skateboarding video games. In Europe and North America, the game was released in 2009, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. In Australia, it was released in 2010. Gameplay In ''R ...
'', and ''
Rock Band Blitz ''Rock Band Blitz'' is a rhythm game in the ''Rock Band'' series from Harmonix as a downloadable game for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, released in August 2012. Unlike previous iterations of ''Rock Band'', ''Blitz'' is not sold with ...
'', and various console tournaments for games such as '' Super Smash Bros. Brawl'', '' Tetris Splash'', and '' Halo: Reach''. There was a PC freeplay area, where games such as '' Battlefield 3'', '' League of Legends'', and '' Minecraft'' could be played, and PC tournaments for '' Magic Online'', '' League of Legends'', and '' Starcraft 2''. There was also a tabletop gaming area, where many types of games were being played, and where tournaments for games such as ''Puzzle Strike'', '' Dominion'', and ''Penny Arcade: The Game''. There were also handheld tournaments, for games such as ''
Mario Kart DS ''Mario Kart DS'' is a 2005 kart racing video game developed by Nintendo EAD Group No. 1 and published by Nintendo. It was released for the Nintendo DS handheld game console in November 2005 in North America, Europe, and Australia, and on Dece ...
'' and '' Tetris DS''. Panels were held during most of the day in the various theaters. Concerts were held in the evenings, featuring performers such as Minibosses, Metroid Metal, The Protomen, Video Game Orchestra, Paul and Storm, Jonathan Coulton, Supercommuter and MC Frontalot. A new event, PAX Dev, was introduced in 2012. PAX Dev 2012, was held from August 29–30. PAX Prime 2012 was held from August 31–September 2 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. Badges for the event went on sale April 25. However, due to technical issues, badge sales were halted on the same day. A week later, on May 2, sales resumed and within 5 hours all 3-day badges were sold out. The keynote was delivered by
Ted Price Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Burbank, California and a studio of PlayStation Studios. It was founded in 1994 by Ted Price as Xtreme Software, and was renamed Insomniac Games a year later. The company is ...
. Concerts were held in the evenings at the Paramount, featuring The Protomen, Video Game Orchestra, Sam Hart, Supercommuter, Paul and Storm, Jonathan Coulton, and MC Frontalot. Special guests on stage at the Saturday night concert included Wil Wheaton, John Roderick, Aubrey Webber of
The Doubleclicks The Doubleclicks are a nerd-folk musical duo based in Portland, Oregon, consisting of siblings Laser Malena-Webber (on guitar, ukulele, or cat keyboard) and Aubrey Turner. They first became known for performing nerd-friendly comedy music, inclu ...
, and Hank Green. Notable events included the ''League of Legends'' North American Regional tournament hosted by
Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on t ...
, which took over most of the sixth floor and drew a crowd of thousands of fans and cosplayers.


2013

PAX East 2013 took place March 22–24 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Passes went on sale October 8, 2012 and 3-day passes were sold out by the next day. All passes were completely sold out by February 28, 2013. At PAX East, Blizzard Entertainment announced '' Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft''. Additionally, the console version of '' Diablo III'' was made playable for the first time. '' Dungeon Defenders 2'', '' Marvel Heroe''s, ''
Warface ''Warface'' is a free-to-play online first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek Kiev, co-produced by Crytek Seoul, and published by My.com. The full version of the game was released on October 21, 2013 as playable in North America and ...
'', ''
Remember Me Remember Me may refer to: Film and television Film * Remember Me (1979 film), ''Remember Me'' (1979 film), an American documentary short by Dick Young * Remember Me (1985 film), ''Remember Me'' (1985 film), an Australian TV movie * Remember Me? (f ...
'' and '' Elder Scrolls Online'' were all playable in the expo hall. Many indie developers also came and showed off their games, including ''
Guacamelee ''Guacamelee!'' is a Metroidvania Action game, action Platform game, platforming video game developed and published by DrinkBox Studios, initially launched in April 2013 for platforms PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita and was later ported to Mi ...
'', '' Outlast'', ''
Castle Story ''Castle Story'' is a sandbox and real-time strategy game developed by Sauropod Studio. Funded through crowdfunding website Kickstarter in 2012, the game launched in September 2013 in early access, and was fully released in August 2017. Ga ...
'' and ''
Super Time Force ''Super Time Force'' is a side-scrolling action and shooter video game by Capybara Games. The game was released for the Xbox One and the Xbox 360 on May 14, 2014. The game was known for its ability for players to rewind themselves, using the "Tim ...
''. Musical performances by Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, The Protomen, Sam Hart, Those Who Fight, Video Game Orchestra, and the Video Game Music Choir. The first PAX Australia, PAX Australia 2013 was held from July 19–21 at the Melbourne Showgrounds in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia at the Melbourne Showgrounds and was organized locally by
ReedPop RELX plc (pronounced "Rel-ex") is a British multinational information and analytics company headquartered in London, England. Its businesses provide scientific, technical and medical information and analytics; legal information and analytics; ...
. PAX Australia was the first time that the Penny Arcade Expo was held outside of the United States. Holkins and Krahulik, as well as Victorian Minister for Innovation Louise Asher, announced that PAX Australia will return in 2014. The keynote was conducted by
Ron Gilbert Ron Gilbert (born January 1, 1964) is an American video game designer, video-game designer, video game programmer, programmer, and video game producer, producer. His games are generally focused on interactive story-telling, and he is arguably bes ...
. PAX Dev 2013 was held from August 28–29. PAX Prime 2013 was held from August 30–September 2 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. Badges for the event went on sale April 17, 2013. 4 day passes sold out within 23 minutes. All badges for the event were sold out entirely in five and a half hours. The keynote speaker was Peter Molyneux.


2014

PAX East 2014 was held from April 11–13 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Passes went on sale on October 23, 2013. Three-day passes were sold out in under an hour and all passes were completely sold out by November 7, 2013. An agreement reached in early 2012 extended Boston as the home of PAX East until 2023. Musical performances included The Doubleclicks, MC Frontalot, Metroid Metal, Anamanaguchi, Bit Brigade, and The Video Game Orchestra PAX Dev 2014 was held from August 27–28. PAX Prime 2014 was held from August 29–September 1 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. Badges for the event went on sale May 28, 2014. The 4-day passes sold out within 15 minutes, and all badges were sold out within 75 minutes. The keynote speaker was
Mikey Neumann Mikey Neumann (born April 16, 1982) is an American YouTuber and video game writer. He is known for the channel ''FilmJoy'', which hosts film criticism series ''Movies with Mikey''. The series celebrates the positive elements of movies, and was ...
, the writer of '' Borderlands: Origins''. PAX Australia 2014 was held from October 31–November 2 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Melbourne was also confirmed as the home of PAX Australia until 2019.


2015

The first PAX South, PAX South 2015, was held from January 23–25 at the
Henry B. González Convention Center The Henry B. González Convention Center (formerly San Antonio Convention Center) is the City of San Antonio's convention center located in Downtown San Antonio, Downtown San Antonio, Texas, along the banks of the San Antonio River Walk, River Wa ...
in San Antonio, Texas, United States. It set a PAX record for highest attendance for a PAX event's inaugural year. PAX East 2015 was held from March 6–8 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The event featured content for ''Hearthstone'', '' Heroes of the Storm'', and '' Overwatch''. At PAX East, Blizzard announced a new adventure for ''Hearthstone'', ''Blackrock Mountain''. PAX Dev 2015 was held from August 26–27. PAX Prime 2015 was held on August 28–31 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. The event featured tournaments for ''
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and (colloquially and collectively referred to as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'') is a group of two 2014 crossover fighting video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS a ...
'' and ''
Super Smash Bros. Melee ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' is a 2001 Fictional crossover, crossover fighting game, fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. I ...
'', which were won by Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman respectively. PAX Australia 2015 was held from October 30–November 1 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. On November 18, 2015, it was confirmed that PAX Prime was being renamed to PAX West.


2016

PAX South 2016 was held from January 29–31 at the
Henry B. González Convention Center The Henry B. González Convention Center (formerly San Antonio Convention Center) is the City of San Antonio's convention center located in Downtown San Antonio, Downtown San Antonio, Texas, along the banks of the San Antonio River Walk, River Wa ...
in San Antonio, Texas, United States. This was followed by PAX East 2016, which was held from April 22–24 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Next, PAX Dev 2016 was held from August 31–September 1. PAX West 2016 was held on September 2–5 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. PAX Australia 2016 was held from November 4–6 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre in Melbourne,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.


2017

PAX South 2017 was held from January 27–29 at the
Henry B. González Convention Center The Henry B. González Convention Center (formerly San Antonio Convention Center) is the City of San Antonio's convention center located in Downtown San Antonio, Downtown San Antonio, Texas, along the banks of the San Antonio River Walk, River Wa ...
in San Antonio, Texas, United States. PAX East 2017 was held from March 10–12 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. PAX Dev 2017 was held from August 29–30. PAX West 2017 was held from September 1–4 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. PAX Australia 2017 was held from October 27–29 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre in Melbourne,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. At PAX South 2017, Penny Arcade announced a new annual PAX focused on tabletop games, to be called PAX Unplugged. In explaining the need, Holkins said "I've looked down from AX Easts skybridges and seen what would be an entire convention right there, just of tabletop games!" while also joking that due to his schedule of annual events, the only way he would be able to attend a tabletop convention would be to found one himself. The first PAX Unplugged was held from November 17–19 at the
Pennsylvania Convention Center The Pennsylvania Convention Center is a multi-use public facility in the Market East, Philadelphia, Market East section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed to accommodate conventions, exhibitions, conferences and other events. The "L"-shaped ...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Rather than the traditional evening music concerts, Unplugged featured a live game of '' Dungeons & Dragons''.


2018

PAX South 2018 was held from January 12–14 at the
Henry B. González Convention Center The Henry B. González Convention Center (formerly San Antonio Convention Center) is the City of San Antonio's convention center located in Downtown San Antonio, Downtown San Antonio, Texas, along the banks of the San Antonio River Walk, River Wa ...
in San Antonio, Texas, United States. PAX East 2018 was held from April 5–8 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. PAX Dev 2018 was held from August 28–29. PAX West 2018 was held from August 31–September 3 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. PAX Australia 2018 was held from October 26–28 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre in Melbourne,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. PAX Unplugged 2018 was held from November 30–December 2 at the
Pennsylvania Convention Center The Pennsylvania Convention Center is a multi-use public facility in the Market East, Philadelphia, Market East section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed to accommodate conventions, exhibitions, conferences and other events. The "L"-shaped ...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, with several areas significantly expanded over the inaugural year.


2019

PAX South 2019 was held from January 18–20 at the
Henry B. González Convention Center The Henry B. González Convention Center (formerly San Antonio Convention Center) is the City of San Antonio's convention center located in Downtown San Antonio, Downtown San Antonio, Texas, along the banks of the San Antonio River Walk, River Wa ...
in San Antonio, Texas, United States. PAX East 2019 was held from March 28–31 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. PAX Dev 2019 was held from August 27–28. PAX West 2019 was held from August 30–September 2 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. PAX Australia 2019 was held from October 11–13 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre in Melbourne,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. PAX Unplugged 2019 was held from December 6–8 at the
Pennsylvania Convention Center The Pennsylvania Convention Center is a multi-use public facility in the Market East, Philadelphia, Market East section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed to accommodate conventions, exhibitions, conferences and other events. The "L"-shaped ...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. This event also marked the 50th PAX event.


2020s


2020

PAX South 2020 was held from January 17–19 at the
Henry B. González Convention Center The Henry B. González Convention Center (formerly San Antonio Convention Center) is the City of San Antonio's convention center located in Downtown San Antonio, Downtown San Antonio, Texas, along the banks of the San Antonio River Walk, River Wa ...
in San Antonio, Texas, United States. PAX East 2020 was held from February 27–March 1 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. On 19 February 2020, Sony announced its intentions to withdraw from the scheduled event due to fears over the
coronavirus outbreak Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...
. Following the announcement, other companies such as
Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
,
Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...
and other notable video game publishers also confirmed plans to skip the event due to safety concerns of its staff. The news coincided with similar GDC 2020 withdrawal announcements. In response to Sony's withdrawal, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh urged the corporation to reverse its decision in a letter addressed to CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. Following coronavirus outbreak fears within the gaming community, PAX addressed raised concerns by announcing enhanced health and safety procedures to be carried out by staff during the course of the event by adhering to the recommendations set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. PAX West, PAX Australia and PAX Unplugged were due to be scheduled from September 4–7 at the
Washington State Convention Center The Seattle Convention Center (SCC), formerly the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC), is a convention center in Seattle, Washington, United States. It consists of several exhibition halls and meeting rooms in buildings along Pike Stree ...
in Seattle, Washington, United States, from October 9–11 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre in Melbourne,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and from November 20–22 at the
Pennsylvania Convention Center The Pennsylvania Convention Center is a multi-use public facility in the Market East, Philadelphia, Market East section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed to accommodate conventions, exhibitions, conferences and other events. The "L"-shaped ...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States but were all cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On June 30, 2020, PAX announced that it was joining forces with EGX to hold a 9-day online event, which will take place from September 12–20, 2020; a month later on July 27, 2020, the online event was given the name PAX Online X EGX Digital.


2021

On December 4, 2020, PAX announced 'optimistic' dates for its 2021 live events if everything goes to plan with the roll out of COVID-19 vaccinations. These were events and dates for their 2021 events: *PAX East 2021 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States from June 3–6. (later cancelled on March 29 and replaced by PAX Online, which ran from July 15–18) *PAX West 2021 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, United States from September 3–6. *PAX Unplugged 2021 at the
Pennsylvania Convention Center The Pennsylvania Convention Center is a multi-use public facility in the Market East, Philadelphia, Market East section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed to accommodate conventions, exhibitions, conferences and other events. The "L"-shaped ...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States from December 10–12. PAX South was not included in their list for 2021, it was originally going to return in 2022, but it was announced on October 30, 2021, that there are no plans for future PAX South events due to COVID-19 and lack of growth. On March 10, 2021, a live event for PAX Australia was announced and was originally going to be held at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre in Melbourne,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
from October 8–10, but was eventually cancelled on August 10, 2021, and ran as an online event instead, held on the same dates under the name PAX Aus Online.


2022

PAX East 2022 was held from April 21–24 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. PAX West 2022 was held from September 2–5 at the
Washington State Convention Center The Seattle Convention Center (SCC), formerly the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC), is a convention center in Seattle, Washington, United States. It consists of several exhibition halls and meeting rooms in buildings along Pike Stree ...
in Seattle, Washington, United States. PAX Australia 2022 was held from October 7–9 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre in Melbourne,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. PAX Unplugged 2022 will be held from December 2–4 at the
Pennsylvania Convention Center The Pennsylvania Convention Center is a multi-use public facility in the Market East, Philadelphia, Market East section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed to accommodate conventions, exhibitions, conferences and other events. The "L"-shaped ...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:PAX events PAX (event) Gaming conventions Penny Arcade (webcomic) Lists of events