Penny Arcade Expo 3rd Annual Gaming Festival Celebrating Videogames and Game Culture to be Held on August 25-27, 2006

Seattle, Washington - January 18, 2006 - Penny Arcade Inc., creator of the popular game-oriented comic strip of the same name, today announced the dates for the third annual Penny Arcade Expo. The three-day event, a nonstop celebration of videogames and gamer culture, will take place Friday, August 25th through Sunday, August 27th, 2006 in Bellevue, Washington. Pre-registration is now open to the public at www.pennyarcadeexpo.com.

Last year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) saw 9,000 hardcore gamers gather just outside Seattle for an over-the-top, game-oriented fun fest. Attractions included an exhibit floor packed with playable game demos of titles that were still a good six months or more from being available in stores, game-industry conference panels, big name music concerts in the 'nerd core' rap and rock genres by artists such as MC Frontalot and The Minibosses, and plenty of gaming tournaments including the Survivor-style Omegathon: a gaming Olympics where participants' names are drawn from the pre-registration list to compete in multiple game formats. Last year's Omegathon prize was a collection of every product ever made for the Nintendo Entertainment System, as well a state-of-the-art limited-edition Star Wars-branded Alienware computer. This year's Omega Collection prize will be announced in June. If you missed PAX 05, you can view show content in a five-DVD set available at www.thinkgeek.com/pa.

"Now that we have some distance from it, I am able to look back at PAX 05 objectively and say that it was the greatest gaming event ever held in the universe," said Penny Arcade's Gabe. "The honest truth is that we would have to be idiots to think that we could top it. So...that's what we intend to do!"

This year's PAX will include an expanded tabletop gaming experience as well as attendees' favorite elements from previous years. PAX 06 is designed to be the epicenter of pure gaming pleasure for three straight days.

Game industry professionals interested in exhibiting or speaking at PAX 06, should contact Robert Khoo at rkhoo@penny-arcade.com.

About Penny Arcade Expo

Started by videogame-oriented comic strip creators Gabe and Tycho in 2004, Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is a 3-day, round-the-clock celebration of games and game culture. It includes an exhibition floor filled with playable demos of games that won't be on shelves until next year, a conference program of game industry speakers on topics related to gaming, music concerts, game tournaments and more. For more information visit www.pennyarcadeexpo.com.

About Penny Arcade

Equal parts online comic and commentary, Penny-Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com) covers videogames in a way that is genuine, insightful, and respected by the gaming community. What started as a hobby for Jerry "Tycho" Holkins and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik has, over five years, grown into an online phenomenon that serves 45 million page views a month to millions of readers worldwide. In addition to the comic strip and PAX, Penny Arcade Inc. also manages Child's Play (www.childsplaycharity.org), a gamer-driven charity for sick kids in Children's Hospitals across the world.