One of those events, Seattle's annual consumer-focused Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX, has seen tremendous growth since it launched in 2004. PAX 2008, held in August, hit record high attendance of over 58,000.
PAX 2004 drew a crowd of 3,300.
But with the big industry-centric E3 back on the table, Edge asked Penny Arcade's Mike "Gabe" Krahulik (left) if the Entertainment Software Association's monster would "steal some of PAX's thunder" next year.
"I ... can't imagine it stealing any of our thunder," said Krahulik. "We have a ridiculous amount of thunder and honestly if they were to steal some of it we probably wouldn't even notice."
He elaborated further: "Just yesterday we accidentally left some of our thunder in our pants and then they went into the washing machine and the thunder got ruined. It wasn't a big deal to us, though, because we have plenty more thunder."
In less thunderous terms, he replied, "I don't see it having any effect on PAX, no. E3 has always been and looks like it will continue to be about the industry. PAX is about the community around games as much as it's about the games themselves."
While rumors had suggested the renewed E3 2009 would be open to the public, the ESA shot down speculation, with president Mike Gallagher telling us, "E3 has never been a consumer show. We're not competing with PAX or Comic-Con."
The most ironic part about the E3 announcement is that it could potentially become the big noisy mess that led publishers to neuter the event two years ago. Gallagher has assured that it'd be a much "smarter"-run show than in E3's most bloated years.
It leads to the question of whether or not publishers really know what they want out of a games event.
"I'm sure they know what they want they just don't know how to get it," Krahulik said. "I assume what they want is publicity for their games and a chance to get the word out about what they're working on. I just think they're coming at it from the wrong angle."
So will Penny Arcade's "Gabe" and "Tycho" (a.k.a. Jerry Holkins, right) be making it out to the new E3?
Krahulik responded, "No I don't think so. We've been to E3 and I feel like we know what it's about. I think it's worth seeing once. I mean, it really is a spectacle, but ask any gamer who has been and they'll tell you that E3 is a terrible place to play games."