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Penny Arcade Announces PAX 2007 Keynote Speaker

Penny Arcade, creators of the popular online comic strip of the same name, have announced key details about this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), the game- culture celebration to be held Aug. 24-26 at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle.

Providing the PAX 2007 keynote address will be writer, actor and geek icon Wil Wheaton. Best known for his role as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Wheaton has gone on to appear in a number of films and become a prolific writer. Wheaton has authored two books, Dancing Barefoot and Just a Geek, maintains a popular blog at www.wilwheaton.net, and is a frequent contributor to a number of game, media and tech Web sites.

One of the highlights of each year's PAX is the Omegathon competition, which pits PAX attendees against each other in a tabletop, videogame and computer game competition that spans all three days of the festival. Twenty "Omeganauts" are chosen at random from pre-registered attendees to compete in the single-elimination tournament, culminating in a final match on stage in front of thousands of their peers. The final game has yet to be revealed (previous final round games were Pong, Atari's Combat, and Tetris), but the grand prize has been announced: a trip for two to the Tokyo Game Show, along with $5,000 in spending cash. The 2007 Tokyo Game Show will be held Sept. 22-23 at the Makuhari Messe convention complex just outside Tokyo.

"PAX has grown by leaps and bounds each year," said Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade, "and the Omegathon grand prize has grown along with it. This year, with a projected attendance of 30,000 and a brand-new venue, we're upping the Omegathon stakes again with the biggest and best prize yet."

Also announced today was PAX 2007 headlining band The Minibosses, known for their instrumental rock covers of videogame music. The Minibosses have covered videogame themes including Ninja Gaiden, Metroid and Super Mario Bros. 2.

Other musical guests at PAX 2007 will include The OneUps, MC Frontalot, Jonathan Coulton, Freezepop, The Neskimos and Optimus Rhyme. Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts/Mythic, Sierra/Vivendi Universal, Wizards of the Coast, NCSoft, Sabertooth Games, Telltale Games, the Behemoth, Namco- Bandai, Upper Deck, Wizkids, ArenaNet, Harmonix and Rockstar top the list of over 50 announced companies exhibiting at PAX 2007.