16:47 (BST), 26/06/2008

The organizers of the fifth annual Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) today announced key details of the upcoming gaming festival, to be held Aug. 29-31, 2008 at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle.

This year's exhibit floor will offer PAX attendees hands-on time with highly anticipated games and products from more exhibitors than ever, including Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Activision and Ubisoft (see below for a complete exhibitor list). In addition to seeing a massive number of pre-release games on its show floor, attendees can expect a bevy of panels, the Omegathon gaming competition, tournaments, and more. First details of PAX 2008 programming include:

- The ECTO-1, of Ghostbusters fame, will be on display for all three days of PAX

- The PAX 10 independent games showcase, to thrill and delight you

- Two nights of music that will almost certainly change your life

"We nearly doubled our exhibition hall and added another 80,000 square feet of content overall, so the show is going to be pretty amazing this year," says Penny Arcade's Robert Khoo. "You should come. I think you would like it."

- 1up.com

- 2K Games

- Activision

- Antec, Inc.

- Astro Gaming

-The Behemoth

- Bethesda

- Bioware

- Blizzard

- Brawndo

- Bungie

- CCP/Whitewolf

- CDV

- clubNAMCO.com

- Cogswell Polytechnical College

- Cryptic Studios

- D3P

- Destineer

- Dolby

- EA Mythic

- ECA (Entertainment Consumer's Association)

- Electronic Arts

- Fantasy Flight Games

- Flying Frog Productions

- Flying Lab Software

- Foundation 9 Entertainment

- Game Publishers Association

- Gamecock

- GameTrailers

- Garage Games

- Guildhall at SMU

- Harmonix

- Hothead Games

- Hudson

- Indiecade

- Intel

- ITT Tech

- Klei Entertainment

- Media-blasters NYC

- Mega64

- Meteor Games

- Microsoft XNA

- Microsoft

- Midway

- Namco Bandai

- NCsoft

- Nintendo

- Nokia

- Patriot Memory

- Pegasus Publishing

- Pink Godzilla

- Plantronics

- Privateer Press

- Razer

- Rockstar

- Roosterteeth.com

- Sierra/Vivendi

- Sony

- SouthPeak Games

- Stardock

- Sumo Lounge

- Telltale

- THQ

- Tinderbox Entertainment

- Tritton Technologies

- Turbine

- Ubisoft

- Udon Entertainment / Oni Press

- Upper Deck

- Vivox

- Wizards of the Coast

- Zenimax

About Penny Arcade Expo: Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is a three-day celebration of games and gamer culture. The festival includes an exhibition floor filled with playable builds of upcoming tabletop, console, and computer games; a conference program of game industry speakers; music concerts; freeplay areas; industry parties; an independent games showcase; game tournaments and more. Since its inception in 2004 the show has doubled in size year-over-year, growing from 4,500 attendees to 37,000 in 2007, making it the largest gaming festival in North America. For more information visit www.pennyarcadeexpo.com.

About Penny Arcade: Equal parts online comic and commentary, Penny Arcade ( www.penny-arcade.com) keeps its finger on the pulse of the gaming industry, prompting conversation and controversy alike from community members and industry experts. What started as a hobby in 1998 for Jerry "Tycho" Holkins and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik has grown into an online phenomenon serving 70 million page views a month to millions of readers worldwide. In addition to the comic strip and PAX gaming festival ( www.pennyarcadeexpo.com), Penny Arcade has expanded its reach to include a growing line of merchandise, a video game and management of Child's Play ( www.childsplaycharity.org), a gamer-driven charity for children that spans the globe