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PA's Khoo Reacts To 'E For All' 2008 Date

Posted by Zonk on from the not-so-much-with-the-truth dept.

The last weekend in August has been the comfortable home of the Penny Arcade Expo since the event began. This year, the new 'E For All' event is planned for October, but in 2008 the IDG-run convention is scheduled for the same weekend as PAX. FiringSquad had a chat with Penny Arcade's business manager Robert Khoo, who explained why he's not worried. "If we change our dates at all, it won't be because of this- it's always a challenge to wrestle and negotiate for as much space as possible at the convention center, and since we're expecting 45-50k next year, we take what we can get. Right now we are planning for that same weekend, but if for some reason even more space opens up two weeks before, we'll take it. But I'll be honest with you- since PAX started I've seen my fair share of consumer shows come and go (take IGNLive for instance). It's super hard to run one of these things, and I'd be surprised if E For All lasts longer than this year." They're expecting a mind-boggling 45k-50k people next year.

3 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Re:50000 is mind-boggling? by heinousjay · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're aware they're calling for 45-50 thousand people to show up to what is essentially a party thrown by a couple of geeky webcomic writers, right? I mean, sure, you can find 100,000 people willing to cheer for Ohio State (bless their black shriveled hearts) but that's a big money event. PAX was built by the community.

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  2. Goes to show they don't really give a crap by brunes69 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Robert Khoo: It was in early June that they announced their 2008 dates, so by that time we already realized PAX 2007 was going to be insane because of the prereg ticket sales. I actually gave (IDG World Expo CEO) Mary Dolaher a ring and told her that for the past four years PAX is on the last weekend of August. She actually had no idea who we were, but I told her that it would be in everyone's best interest if she reconsidered the date given our size. She said she would call me back "next week..." and that was 4 months ago, so I don't know- maybe she lost my phone number?

    How can you be running a huge gaming expo, under the banner "E for All", and not even know what PAX or Penny Arcade are? They obviously know nothing about their target audience at all.

  3. Nail in the Coffin by shidarin'ou · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is the last nail in the coffin for E for All. With the success of PAX growing exponentially, and the amount of companies involved in E for All decreasing just as fast, it reeks of desperation to try and schedule E for All on the same weekend of Pax,

    Or does it? E for All is already dead. It is basically going to be a local convention now. If you already live in LA, whats a little traffic congested drive for a day full of some free cool swag and games?

    Perhaps by changing the weekend to the same weekend as PAX, they hope that all the hardcore gamers will be at PAX, leaving E for All to be for the less hardcore, the very very casual gamers. Expect a lot of second life and sims players from Southern California, and very little else.

    I'm still debating checking out E for All this year. I'm in the area, so why not?

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