Living on the west coast, I really have taken for granted the amount of conventions dedicated to videogames. This side of the country represents some of the biggest and well-known expos in the world like: E3, GDC and even PAX. These shows have thousands of attendees each year, and they seem to grow year-in and year-out. However, for me it wasn’t always easy to access a gaming show.
You see, I grew up in the Boston area, where the local government is trying to lure videogames publishers and expand to the Bay State. Just recently, Penny Arcade announced they will be extend their PAX show to two times a year and one of them will be on the east coast, and Boston is the lucky city to host the show. In a way you can say it was the first major confirmation that Boston is trying to be a focal point for the videogame industry.
While PAX is certainly a welcoming sign that New England could bank on a never-ending industry, the show won’t be the first to entice thousands of gamers to visit the Bay State.
A few years ago, the largest Ebay videogame seller opened an independent game store in Framingham, MA; a suburb just west of Boston. The store, called Game Universe, sells everything from retro gaming machines like the original Atari 2600 and goes all the way to this newest generation. While the concept alone is worth visiting, the store’s owners wanted to make sure their customers also had an incredible experience when they came to explored the outlet as well.
They decided to attach six 50″ plasma screens on the walls around the store and even added 5.1 surround sound to some of them. Each display was capable of playing anything, so if you wanted to experience E.T. on the Atari alone before your friends who were supposed to met you but are running late to play a little Gears of War — it could be done.
Word got around fast and customers started to come into the store just to play games. Management thought it would be a great idea to start-up tournaments, in hopes it would lure even more customers. The theory ended up being successful; the owners had to purchase another eight smaller screens because of the high demand of customers entering exclusively for LAN tournament play.
Over the course of three years, the store has earned some great creditability; they even saw players as far as California come to participate in their gaming tournament. They noticed that gaming tournaments were not just some fad and if done right, could actually be held inside a convention. That is exactly what they are planning as I write.
“We have spent the last three years building our local reputation for running pro-level tournaments at Game Universe in Framingham, MA,” said James Jewett co-executive director. “We got to the point where we outgrew our venue so we decided take on a larger event.”
Game Universe has just recently revealed a gaming convention called GameUniCon and will take place at the 20,000 square foot Best Western Royal Plaza in Marlborough, MA. Get this, when the convention opens its doors on August 21st, they won’t close until three days later on the 23rd. That’s right, show organizers have confirmed it will be 24-hours long, and never close until the final day.
After the jump, read more about this newly announced convention.
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