SXSW Gaming is a relative newcomer to the sprawling media show-and-tell that is the annual South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. A work in progress, the SXSW Gaming is out to prove in 2018 that it can compete with other gaming trade shows, starting with its lastest tournament and panel lineup update.
This year’s featured speakers include Ashley Jenkins, creator and host of Rooster Teeth’s daily gaming news channel The Know and its associated podcast Glitch, Please. Ashley was recently in Australia for the third annual RTX Sydney, but won’t have to travel far from Rooster Teeth’s Austin offices for SXSW and we’re sure she’s pretty stoked about that. Jenkins will be conducting a one-on-one interview with Brendan PLAYERUNKNOWN Greene, creator of the wildly popular battle royale shooter PlayerUnknown‘s Battlegrounds.
Greene himself, in spite of his well-known online handle, is becoming better and better known by the minute. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds set records in 2017, repeatedly taking the crown for most concurrent users on Steam from Valve’s own juggernaut DOTA2. Greene and Jenkins will front the panel PLAYERUNKNOWN: From Mod Maker to Creative Director, discussing his career, PUBG‘s sudden explosion into the popular consciousness, its defining of a new genre and where it will go from here.
Greene won’t be the only big gaming name on the Discovery Stage this year however — Ultima creator Richard Garriot, Lord British himself, and Sarah Dworken from Portalarium will discuss their new game, runaway crowdfunding success Shroud of the Avatar. Otherside Entertainment will be detailing their new title Underworld Ascendent with PC Gamer’s Paul Neuratha and Evan Lahti. Legendary Castlevania developer Koji “Iga” Igarashi will chat to io9’s Evan Narcisse about his new title and Castlevania throwback Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. This represents less than half of what’s happening at the show this year. I urge you to check out the full schedule because there’s a lot of interesting panels going on throughout.
Meanwhile, the Tournament Stage has announced its first two competition entrants, 5v5 MOBA title Arena of Valor and mobile destroy-em-up Clash Royale, with more to come.
SXSW 2018 kicks off March 9 in Austin, Texas.
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