PAX09 – we barely survived! Forty-five appointments in three days with media types, tons of hands-on time with players including a few community members, and one confirmed case of swine flu.
PAX was incredible this year for many reasons – it was the zenith of the con’s popularity with an estimated 70,000 attendees, and we were fortunate to be among them. Showing off Torchlight to everyone who came to play was extremely rewarding. People seemed to connect instantly with the game and get sucked right in – we had people play for an hour straight before we gently kicked them off (and wouldn’t have except for the folks waiting behind them!) Even those who were skeptical at first would start playing and then get giddy. That’s what we like to see! Plus people had fun with the swag, applying temporary tattoos of the Alchemist, Imp, or Mechanical Golem, adding a Runic Games bottle opener to their keychain and walking off proudly with Torchlight totes. When we broke down the booth Sunday night, it took about 8 or 9 of us fifteen minutes, and we hand-carried the monitors, computers, random leftovers, and our vacuum the three blocks back to the office – now that’s epic. :)
There are a lot of previews and impressions coming in, and we’d like to share those with you. They are already on the forums, but for added convenience we’ve made a Press page here on the website so you can just click over and find a review at a glance. We’ve even pulled handy little sound bites. If you find one we’ve missed, don’t hesitate to shoot us a note – otherwise, we’ll keep it as updated as possible.
Thank you everyone who stopped by and played for making this the most memorable PAX ever! We can’t wait to ship Torchlight to you on October 27.
