We're working super hard to make PAX the coolest fucking convention ever and I've got some new stuff to share with you.
The console room is going to be hot, with more than thirty 32" televisions and just as many consoles. We'll have tons of free games running both days as well as some great organized tournaments. One of the tournaments we've just added is actually for Rainbow Six:Black Arrow which I know a lot of you are looking forward to.
We've also added some new special guests:
Andre Vrignaud - Microsoft
Panels: Online Gaming
Andre Vrignaud works at Microsoft as the Director of Platform Strategy for Xbox Live where he thinks deep, fluffy thoughts about the future of online gaming for a living. Previous to Microsoft he worked at Intel on their PC gaming strategy, and previous to that he worked at the Total Entertainment Network (TEN) where he learned the hard way that building an online gaming network from scratch is *really* hard and expensive (hence the full circle to Microsoft today).
Shekhar Dhupelia - Studio Gigante
Panels: Online Gaming, Pitch Your Game Idea!
Shekhar Dhupelia's first foray into the games industry took the form of two years working with the SCE-RT group of Sony (SCEA) in San Diego, developing the online software and server infrastructure that power SOCOM: US Navy Seals, Frequency, Twisted Metal Black Online, NFL Gameday, and many other Playstation2 titles to this day. He followed this with a brief stint working on Microsoft's NBA Inside Drive 2004 XBox Live implementation. Most recently with Midway Games, he just finished up NBA Ballers for both PS2 and Xbox. Shekhar has previously written for the Game Programming Gems series, and has spoken at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) on online game design. Shekhar is now developing the Xbox Live features for an unannounced Xbox Live title.
Oh, and the mother fucking Red Vs. Blue guys!
I also wanted to remind everyone that if you want to be eligble for the Omegathon you need to pre-register. Check out the rules for more details.
We're talking with a lot of different companies about getting some of the E3 demos you might have read about available for play at PAX. I should be able to announce some of those titles pretty soon. It's safe to say that you'll be able to play some awesome new shit at PAX.
Pre-registering really helps us out a lot. Already based on the response we've gone ahead and expanded the tabletop room and secured some extra space for the LAN section. If you're planning on attending PAX we'd really appreciate it if you sign up now. You get a little discount on admission and it really helps us on the planning side of things.
