— Every Labor Day weekend, thousands of gamers descend upon the Washington State Convention Center for PAX West, the Pacific Northwest’s largest gaming convention. The 2019 edition marks the 15th year of the show, which offers attendees the opportunity to play some of the latest games and attend numerous panels, talks, concerts, and contests.
The long list of exhibitors includes a variety of local game companies, developers and schools, including Nintendo, Bungie, DigiPen, and the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. The show also features big publishers such as 2K Games, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Google Stadia, and Ubisoft, as well as countless independent studios. It runs from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2. Tickets for the majority of the weekend are sold out, but there are still available for Sept 2.
— Though they won’t have a presence on the show floor at PAX this year, Microsoft will be hosting its annual ID@Xbox Open House on Aug. 29. Now in its sixth year, the event showcases more than 50 games slated for release through the ID@Xbox program, which lets independent video game developers self-publish titles for Windows and Xbox One. Attendees also get to chat with developers and members of the Xbox team. This year the event will also feature the highly anticipated Gears of War 5. The event takes place on Microsoft’s main campus and free busses will take attendees from the Convention Center to Redmond.
Here are more highlights from the GeekWire Calendar:
- LEGO Robotics 101: A hands-on workshop programming LEGO EV3 Mindstorms at The Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle; 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 29.
- State of Real Estate Blockchain Smart Securities: A panel about blockchain smart securities and their potential in the real estate industry at K&L Gates in Seattle; 5 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 29.
- Cloud City Meetup: Chaos in the Enterprise: A panel about bringing chaos engineering to enterprise at Chef Software in Seattle; 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 29.
- Throwback Thursday: Stranger Things: A celebration of pop culture in the ’80s at the White River Valley Museum in Auburn; 7 to 10 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 29.
- Partner Power Hour: Problem Solving – the Day to Day of a Dev: A presentation about what it means to be a software engineer at Code Fellows in Seattle; 12:15 to 1 p.m., Friday, Aug. 30.
- Night of Gaming for Good: Attendees play games to raise money for Seattle Children’s Hospital at Columbia Tower in Seattle; 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., Friday, Aug. 30 to Saturday, Aug. 31.
- The MIX Seattle 2019: Indie games are in the spotlight at Block 41 in Seattle; 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, Aug 30.
- Retro Gaming Weekend: An event where attendees can see and play retro games from the ’70s and ’80s at the Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, Aug 31.
- Seattle Indies Expo 2019: Another event featuring indie games at Motif in Seattle; 12 to 9 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 1.