pax-prime-2010 posts

As we exclusively reported earlier today, the seventh edition of PAX Prime 2010 brought in 67,600 attendees to Seattle last weekend, making the fan-oriented games convention the largest of its type in the US. The first annual PAX East event last March in Boston brought in 52,290 attendees and next year will move to a much larger venue in the same city.

With two successful Penny Arcade Expos, is there room for a third PAX event? Gamasutra reports that the answer is, "Maybe." During a press Q&A with Penny Arcade co-creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins during PAX Prime 2010, the report says the team hinted that a third PAX event might happen and that it "would likely take place in a different country; preferably somewhere the duo want to visit." Might we suggest Bermuda?

PAX Prime 2010 was expected to be the largest event in the history of the Penny Arcade Expo and today Big Download can exclusively reveal that the seventh annual fan-themed game event in Seattle, Washington brought in a total of 67,600 attendees last weekend. The numbers were revealed to us by Penny Arcade's business head Robert Khoo.

The number is well over last year's attendance figure of 60,750 thanks in part to Penny Arcade's decision to expand the show's exhibit hall area at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center and move the main theater presentations off site to a nearby location. Even with the higher numbers tickets for PAX Prime 2010 sold out several days before it was held.

The show remains the single biggest US-based consumer show devoted to PC and console games. Of course the next PAX show is PAX East 2011 to be held in Boston, Massachusetts but exact dates for that event have yet to be revealed.

Check after the jump to read some more comments on PAX Prime 2010 from Khoo:

Well over a year ago, Braid creator Jonathan Blow revealed the title for his next indie game, The Witness. Last March he posted up some pseudo-screenshots from the indie adventure-puzzle title set on an uninhabited island. As it turns out, the game made its first public appearance at PAX Prime 2010 this past weekend with no advanced warning.

An early build of the game was placed around some other indie titles with no signage or goofy promo hype and open to anyone who wanted to play it. Blow states on his blog site, "I wanted people to be able to play the game for as long as they want, not feeling pressured to stop playing because of a huge line of antsy people waiting behind them." The experiment seems to have worked as Blow states, "People tended to play for a long time, and they liked what they played." Kotaku has posted up some impressions of The Witness which is due for release in late 2011.

While the official Duke Nukem Forever web site pretty much gave away this fact on Friday with its trademark fine print at the bottom, today Gearbox Software made it official. The developer formed by a number of ex-3D Realms employees announced in a press release and at its PAX Prime 2010 panel on Sunday night that it has now acquired the Duke Nukem franchise and IP from 3D Realms. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Naturally these rights include the revived Duke Nukem Forever first person shooter game which Gearbox is now in charge of completing after over 13 years in development. 3D Realms' co-founders Scott Miller and George Broussard have given their blessings for this deal with Broussard stating, "Gearbox was the only home appropriate for the Duke Nukem brand." The big question: with its most lucrative brand now sold off to Gearbox, what is the future going to be like for 3D Realms as a company?

While Valve has talked about its plans for the separate co-op campaign for Portal 2, PAX Prime was the place where Valve showed off a large chuck of gameplay from the co-op section of the puzzle shooter for the first time. GameTrailers filmed Valve's presentation off a video monitor at PAX Prime.

The video gives a nice slice of what players can expect in the co-op campaign where players control two robots armed just with Portal guns as they figure out how to traverse through the Aperture Science puzzles and locations. There are some funny moments in the video including a failed attempt to get through one puzzle that resulted in the robots giving each other hugs. How cute. You can check out the video after the jump. You can also see some new co-op screenshots that we have added to our Portal 2 gallery.

While we can't be at PAX Prime this year, the folks at 2K Games are there streaming footage of folks playing a small portion of the single player gameplay of Duke Nukem Forever. Think about that for a second. For the first time in the history of man, people that are not 3D Realms or Gearbox Software team members are playing Duke Nukem Forever in public. Anything is truly possible,

Our sister site Joystiq captured some of the streaming video which you can see above and also after the jump. Yes, it's shaky and blurry but at this point we will take it, thank you very much. Gearbox head man Randy Pitchford is also making behind closed doors presentations about the long awaited first person shooter but apparently the footage from that presentation can't be shown to the public yet.

Duke Nuke Forever isn't the only long-in-development game being given a public showing at PAX Prime 2010 today. Developer Red 5 Studios, which launched five years ago, finally announced its game today. It's called FireFall and as we first reported a few weeks ago it is indeed an online team based first person shooter. The sci-fi themed game will be free to play with microtransactions available for purchasing optional in-game items.

FireFall takes place on Earth 200 years in the future where humans are fighting off the Melding, "a hostile energy storm that engulfs most of our home planet." Humans also have to deal with an opposing enemy called The Chosen. Players will be able to customize their characters and even swap and trade items on the fly. Fans of the Tribes game franchise might be interested to know that Scott Youngblood, the lead designer for Tribes 1 and 2 is now the lead designer for FireFall. The game is due for launch in late 2011 but sign ups to beta test the game are now being accepted on the game's official web site.

The game that has been in development for over 13 years may finally be released after all. Via a fan's blog site, publisher 2K Games is displaying at its PAX Prime 2010 booth signs and banners confirming that the development team at Gearbox Software will take over the making of Duke Nukem Forever, the first person shooter that began life at Duke Nukem's owner 3D Realms. We are still waiting for the promised video stream presentation from PAX Prime to go live.

The game began its life in 1997 as a sequel to 3D Realms' hit 1996 shooter Duke Nukem 3D. However the dev team dissapointed gamers year after year with delays, engine changes and then almost total silence on the game's development. In May 2009, 3D Realms laid off its internal development team and engaged in a legal battle with Duke Nukem Forever's publisher Take Two Interactive. Those legal actions were settled quietly a few months ago. We will post updates when we learn more official news on Duke Nukem Forever's re-announcement.

Update: The Wall Street Journal has posted up a story that also confirms Gearbox's involvement in Duke Nukem Forever's revival with Gearbox head man Randy Pitchford saying the team started working on the game in late 2009. The article seems confused about the game's release date; one paragraph says it will ship "next year" while another says it will be released in 2010.

Update 2: Pitchford has now confirmed via 2K Games' streaming video coverage that the game is in fact due out in 2011. Attendees at PAX Prime are getting a chance to play a portion of the game's single player content.

[Via Shacknews]

So are you ready to hear about something BIG? Then you will have to wait until Friday at 1 pm Eastern time. That's when 2K Games is supposedly revealing something BIG at its booth at PAX Prime 2010. It's apparently so BIG that the publisher is streaming live video from the event so everyone can know what it is about.

What could it be? Some people are speculating that it could be the rumored revival of the long awaited first person shooter Duke Nuke Forever via developer Gearbox Software. In related news, George Broussard, the present of Duke Nukem's owner 3D Realms, has "tweeted" a link to an interesting illustration. What does it really mean?

With PAX Prime 2010 now completely sold out of tickets, publishers that are attending the annual event in Seattle this weekend are announcing their special fan events. Capcom has something unusual it has planned its PAX Prime fan event designed to promote the upcoming zombie action game Dead Rising 2.

As you can see from the image, Capcom is promoting a special "sale" at Green's Hardware on Friday, September 3 at a location a few blocks away from PAX Prime's convention center. PAX Prime attendees have to head to the Capcom booth to get their invites which come in the form of Green's Hardware newspaper ad flyers. We suspect there will be some playable builds of Dead Rising 2 at the event but what else is going on. Will you really be able to get good deals on a box of nails or even a handgun? Stay tuned.