Penny Arcade Will Combine Its PAX Events Into An Online Expo This Fall

Gaming expos and conventions all around the world have been canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Tuesday brought word that two more events will be combined into one online event later this year. Penny Arcade, which puts on various PAX events that highlight gaming around the United States, announced that it would turn PAX West and PAX Australia into a single online-only event in September.

The company announced that PAX Online would instead be a nine-day event filled with panels and the traditional events that come with PAX, just running at all hours of the day from September 12 to the 20th.

In our previous post, we explained that while we still had hoped to bring you PAX West this year, protecting the safety and health of our community is our highest priority. The more we worked on a solution, the more it became clear that if we really wanted to welcome everybody home, we’d have to remove the physical barriers entirely, and simply take PAX Online.

Going digital means a lot more than just a change in venue though, and by transcending the physical, in fact, we’re able to do more PAX than ever before!

PAX East in Boston was one of the last events to go off as planned, despite some companies like Sony deciding not to attend the late February gaming event due to coronavirus concerns. It turned out to be one of the last live gaming showcases this year, as Los Angeles’ Electronic Entertainment Expo was canceled weeks later and companies like Sony and EA Sports have held online events to showcase new games and technology instead of the traditional expo settings.

The event will be free to “attend” and PAX organizers said Tuesday that they are currently soliciting panels from groups that would traditionally attend live PAX events. And, of course, there will still be plenty of merch for sale.