PAX Prime has become one of the hottest tickets for gamers, with the show typically selling out every year in very short order. The convention facilities are packed with all kinds of game companies from tabletop favorites to console, PC and mobile game publishers, all looking to get the incredibly dedicated fans attending PAX Prime to get excited about the latest games. Now you don’t have to be one of the lucky attendees to experience what’s going on at PAX Prime, because Twitch will bring it right to you wherever you are in the world.
The show is jammed with news releases from many game companies large and small, showing off new hardware (like Valve demoing Vive VR, and Razer showing its new Wildcat Tournament Grade Controller for Xbox One) and new games (like 3D Realms showing its new title Bombshell, and Warner Bros. Interactive demoing Mad Max) to news about existing games (like ArenaNet’s announcing the release date for its Guild Wars 2 expansion, Heart of Thorns October 23rd). Twitch has a stage on the show floor and a steady lineup of guests to bring you the best of PAX Prime on a convenient stream.
Twitch’s director of PR, Chase, spoke with [a]listdaily about the PAX Prime show and Twitch’s extensive coverage of it.
How much work goes into to creating the Twitch presence at PAX Prime How many months in advance do you start planning?
We begin our most aggressive work on PAX about four-six months in advance, although there are smaller pieces of the puzzle that start much sooner than that. There is a lot that goes into every show where we have a booth presence, such as coordinating the stage content, creating exclusive swag for our awesome community, vetting sponsors and ensuring the booth itself is optimized on the technical and branding front.
What size audience did you attract last year watching your streams from PAX Prime, and do you expect to beat those numbers this year?
Since every event we do has exceeded its predecessor in large increments, we expect this PAX to surpass last year’s viewership. It helps that as the exclusive broadcasting partner of PAX, we have content you can’t see anywhere else. It’s also worth noting that because the show sells out in what seems like minutes, we are able to provide a window to the event to all of the people who couldn’t purchase a ticket or make it from across the globe to be here. We love being able to offer that to our community since they are the reason we exist.
What are the most popular things that appear at your booth?
There is an audience for everything we do at PAX. We have blocks of time for our popular broadcasters to do meet-and-greets with their fans and that always draws huge lines, our Twitch Town Hall panel fills to capacity, and our stage show attracts a lot of viewers since it has all of the biggest brands doing segments, so there is not one element that rises above the rest. In terms of our broadcast, it’s hard to narrow down which event will draw the most viewers, but to simplify what to see, whether it is panels from several of the theaters, our stage show or our partners who are doing their own broadcasts from PAX, we’ve created a one-stop shop portal at twitch.tv/event/pax.
Obviously you’ve got a great deal of your streaming planned out in advance of the show, but how much at PAX Prime is likely to be spontaneous, a last-minute surprise, or something even you didn’t expect?
While we schedule all of our stage guests in advance and know what games they are going to showcase, we never know what direction the interviews are going to take, so that’s where surprises can occur. We also have occasional content that is unannounced, so that is a surprise more for our community than ourselves.
There’s certainly going to be plenty to see for game fans, but is there a time that you really suggest they make plans to tune in for?
Our Twitch Town Hall panel is always worth watching because we devote a big chunk of time to letting our community provide feedback about our platform. It’s from listening to our community that we’ve been able to continue to grow and connect with them. Another fan favorite is our PJSaltan of Stream II. This was such a big hit the first time, we’re bringing it back. It’s where 16 popular Twitch personalities go head to head for the title of King or Queen of Salt while playing new games with insane rules. For context, getting Salty on Twitch is when someone gets mad, so the madness on our stage during this event will be at a comical level. Come watch live at the booth or online Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1-3 p.m. PDT.