PAX South announced for Jan. 2015

http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/12/5607624/pax-south-in-san-antonio-announced-for-january-2015

Apparently PAX will be coming to San Antonio, Texas coming this January. How do ya'll feel about this? I know being from California it will be easier going to PAX South than PAX East.

It is good for fans who want to go - but having three similar trade shows a year is going to water down which publishers and devs go and show their stuff. I can't really see GB doing three panels.

@oscar__explosion: terrible idea. I suppose there's a lot of Austin game studios nowadays but if they choose this Texas PAX then the other two become significantly diluted. I can see a PAX Australia cause they get no other E3 style event, and Japanese studios can make the trip more easily. I can also understand a PAX in the UK that also includes all the Germans and French studios, plus obscure helicopter PC game makers. But an expo in January in Texas then Boston in March is a bad idea.

This is great! Dallas is 2000 miles away from one PAX and 1700 miles away from the other one. This one is just 270 miles away! A 4 hour drive. I can totally do a four hour drive. Rad. I would've preferred it in one of the major cities like Austin or Dallas but hey. I guess the reality is Pax doesn't choose major cities it chooses semi major ones.

Edit:Discussing it with folk seems like a cheap plane ride may be better for such a short trip, especially if the show is on the River Walk which people just told me about. No need to have a car at the show sounds like. In any case definitely intending on being there!

@rachelepithet: PAX East is in April. I do agree that there is a danger of diluting developer participation between PAX East and PAX South, since they are a few months apart. I think PAX Prime will be fine since it's later in the year, and due to locations, doesn't really compete with PAX Australia either.

PAX South makes sense if they were looking for a January event in the US. Only other places that wouldn't have terrible weather during that time would be southeast and southwest, and PAX Prime and PAX East already exist.

Prime and South are both equally far for me (about 1200 miles). I'm not driving 18 hours or spending $400 on a plane ticket to go to one of these, unfortunately.

Its a good location geographically, but just out of reach for where I live (Las Vegas) and what I'm willing to do to attend. They're spreading themselves a bit thin, it seems. I'd like to see the locations move around every year.

Waiting for Pax north, Pax West, Pax Earth, Pax Wind, Pax Fire, Pax Water, & Pax Heart in 2015 as well.

In all honesty yeah its kinda watering down the essence of PAX but hey if they can make money and people come, more power to them.

As someone who lives roughly 180 miles from San Antonio, This is awesome!

Hate to rain on your parade(see what I did there?), but the weather is still pretty terrible here in January. We might not be buried in snow, but it is bitterly cold, and the wind will cut through anything that isn't heavily insulated or leather. It also likes to storm heavily at random times, so you never really know what to expect. It could be sunny and tolerable outside one minute, and pouring rain, sleeting, or hailing, 5 minutes later. We have a saying down here" If you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes."

As an example, not long ago, one day was a beautiful sunny day, roughly 75 degrees. The next day it was in the 30's and sleeting. I would dress warmly.

Then again, I get cold the moment the thermostat drops below 70. I hate cold weather more than almost anything, and am basically a shut-in throughout the winter months. I don't understand how anyone could possibly live anywhere cold.

That being said, I can hang throughout summers that have 90-100 days at a time all above 100 degrees, and have even worked as a roofer in August, when the thermometer was red lining at 110 degrees, and the shingles were literally melting under our feet.

I live about 300 miles from San Antonio, so this news is awesome to me.

Sure I am concerned about possible dilution of the PAX convention, but if people show up it should be fine.

It's great. Now there's a Pax that's only a short train ride away from where I live.

The dilution complaint is silly. Pax sells out all centers every year. There's clearly room for another one.

Well, I can feasibly attend this one, so that's neat.

The way you framed that adage makes me feel like I need to find a Confederate flag t-shirt and some tobacco to chew on.

And, unfortunately, you would blend in quite nicely with some of the, should I say, less refined members of the small town I currently reside in.

Fortunately for PAX, San Antonio is a fairly large and modern city, and its relative proximity to Austin tends to scare away a majority of those Confederate flag t-shirt wearing tobacco chewers, or, to be politically correct, "Rednecks*".

*Seriously. Thats what they prefer to be called. I'm not joking at all. They even have it printed on their vehicles. You know. Because of pride. The pride in being a Redneck.....

Fuck. Was really hoping for something closer to Michigan.

So there's a PAX in the East, West, and now South... Surely that means PAX North is next.

Location makes sense fi you are going to add another in the States, but how many PAXs do we really need?

It's gotten to the point where I think panelists, devs, journalists etc are probably forced to pick how many of these they can go to.

Well I think that's great that they're expanding.

To me this is a much more feasible location, so that's cool. January is an interesting month to hold a gaming convention. I guess it would be a good time to show all those games that got delayed until March. As people are saying, they do run the risk of diluting PAX, I'm not worried that there isn't enough demand attendance wise, but how many conventions are developers and journalists going to be willing to attend every year? I have a feeling that this might be where the Giantbomb guys will draw the line, and if they're not doing a panel, I probably won't go. I find the thought of Patrick and Alex in Southern Texas amusing for some reason.

Well, we have yet to see if any of the crew will ever attend PAX Australia. (Yes, there were plans to last year that were cancelled for understandable circumstances, but San Antonio is easier to travel to and plan for than Australia.)

Missed opportunity for PAXSW

As someone who lives 50~ miles from San Antonio this makes me very excited.

oh goodie, this one is gonna be especially dirty

At least it's not in fucking Melbourne or Liverpool (I guess?).

It's cool that they're branching out, but at the same time I don't really see the need for another one. I'd rather there be 2 really good shows than 3 average ones. And by that, I mean the amount of publishers/developers that go and show stuff.

In 2018 we'll have PAX: oribit. It'll take place on the ISS.

I'm worried that there will be too many shows and that people wont show up, but the organizers must have looked into this already and got some kinda agreement with devs, etc, right? One of my issues with all the PAX shows is that because it sells out so quickly you have to buy tickets and just roll the dice on who is coming and what will be going on. There is no scheduling and no confirmations of guests until about a month before the show, I'd be bummed to buy a ticket for the show, later to find out that there was nothing of interest there for me. I went to PAX AUS last year and if I wasn't into tabletop gaming the show would have been a bust for me. Still going this year due to the change to a proper venue, though but I wonder what/who will be there considering the time of the year (Halloween).

Although it could be a positive in a few ways, firstly those closer to the area can go to that show, and hopefully this might take pressure off Prime and to a lesser extent, East, maybe to the point where PAX prime doesn't sell out in less than an hour. Secondly, at that time of year there is little videogame coverage so it might be possible for a lot of games press to make it out.

I'm split on the idea.

I'm from San Antonio, and after watching today's PAX stream.. Gosh, I don't know if it would even worth paying to go to..

Maybe just the Giant Bomb panel, but uhh. Hrm.

I excited. PAX has always been a dream, but a little to far from Texas. Sure, San Antonio is 6 hour drive for me, but my in-laws live there... so free place to stay.

FUCK YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! I CAN FINALLY GO TO A GODDAMN PAX!

People that are saying this is a bad idea need to realize that Seattle and Boston are SIGNIFICANTLY FAR AWAY. The plane ticket alone for round trip is ridiculous (I know because I've looked at prices for it before). Between the price for PAX itself, plane ticket, and a hotel, I might as well take a vacation with my girlfriend for the same price.

As a matter of fact, last month for her birthday, we DID take a trip to San Antonio. A five day stay there cost us right around $1000, which is a portion of what it would cost us to go to either of the other PAX shows. Granted, we stayed at The Menger, valet parking, and nice restaurants for the stay...plus she brought about $600 extra for her birthday shopping, but still...

Moreover, it's on the Riverwalk, and I love the Riverwalk. Any excuse I can get to drive to San Antonio, stay for a couple of days, and go down to Willy B's for some calzones or Scholz's for some ridiculous fucking homemade root beer? Sure, I'll take it.

@jeff, @brad, @vinny, @drewbert, @alex, for the love of all that is holy and righteous in this world, you HAVE to go to San Antonio for this, do a panel, and then go to Scholz's for some killer fucking grub. A meetup would be awesome as well. There are some really nice stomping grounds around the Riverwalk, and hell, I'll take you on a personal fucking tour of downtown!

Also also, the Alamo isn't that far away from where the event is at...so no reason to NOT see the Alamo while you are all there!

Dilution isn't a problem for attendees, it's a problem for companies/panelists. At some point they have to actually make stuff, not just attend conventions. So anyone who shows up at this thing is probably someone who opted not to attend at least 1 of the other PAX events.

That whole synopsis is 100% accurate...unlike most of our weathermen.

They might as well replace all of the weathermen on Texas news stations with a robot that just exclaims "I GOT NO FUCKIN' CLUE WHAT IT'S LIKE TODAY, JEFF. BACK TO YOU!"

Being January, if you are coming from out of state, pack for rain, sleet, hail, about 20-30 degrees with the off chance of 60 or 70 degrees. Basically, bring a windbreaker, a hoodie, a jacket, some sandals, shorts, shoes, and possibly a hat...

...and lots of bourbon.

Most companies don't send their development staff to these events. They're attended by PR reps that are paid specifically to promote and show off their games.

But every company does put build time into making the demos they showcase. So now the option is send out a 6 month old version of the game, waste time making a new demo, or don't go to the convention.

They should have just rotated the venues for a few years. I think 3 full-time in the US is going to prove to be overkill.

They're not building new demos for every show. Every time I've been to PAX, the demos that I've typically seen are identical to demos that were shown at E3 months earlier. They are not putting any additional time into making demos unless they plan something PAX-specific, which is rarely the case.

Whatever day the customary GB/Harmonix related nonsense happens I'll go to that, assuming they all go to the show. I only live half an hour from downtown San Antonio so getting there is no big deal.

I think that is said anywhere with variable weather (in other words, not San Diego).

@samael2138: If it's not snow or actually freezing, it's not terrible weather. It's just not great weather.

I come from IL and moved to CA, where colleagues wondered how I can go out in sub-70 weather without a jacket.

@cornbredx: It's not about attendance. These conventions sell out, so it's obvious there's a demand for more from the consumers. It's the developers and publishers that is the question. Going to these aren't free for them. They have to pay for space on the floor, the booth, allocate people that could be doing something else, travel, etc. It's a costly enterprise that they might not be able to afford going to every one of these conventions. That's not even considering any time and effort put into making a build of their game, or just bringing the same one to multiple conventions.

@hailinel: It depends on the size of the developer. In some cases it is PR, but there are also project leads and developers. PAX isn't as big of a spectacle for mainstream media like E3, so they don't really get as much PR for going to all these conventions, unless they announce something. So developers rely on game journalists for coverage. If they end up bringing the same build to each convention, there really isn't need to cover the same game, defeating the purpose of sending PR there.

Ehhh, not sure how this is going to go over with devs/publishers. I just got home from PAX East and there really wasn't much compelling stuff there this year (I left before the show was over). ex: Microsoft was showing off AoM HD, Kinect Sports, and TitanFall. I spent a good amount of time at the console free play section playing WiiU games I don't own. And streetpassing. Always streetpassing.

I guess we'll find out in January.

FUCK YES! ITS ONLY THREE HOURS AWAY FROM ME!

Yeah, I'm pretty excited for this.