SXSW Gaming continues its strange position as the stepchild of the festival at large. Historically it’s been a subset of the ever-growing Interactive fest, but was free and open to the public and took place on the wrong side of the river at the Palmer Events Center.
For 2016, the Gaming Expo moves back to the Austin Convention Center. Datewise it leaves the confines of SXSW Interactive and moves to March 17-19, smack dab in the middle of the Music and Film fests. Conveniently, gaming incorporates elements of cinema, music, and interactivity, so the Gaming Expo fits just about anywhere.
Other than those changes, the big picture looks similar. SXSW Gaming still consists of the three-day Expo with speakers, professional gaming tournaments, professional panels, and more. No venue has yet to be announced for the third annual SXSW Gaming Awards scheduled on Saturday, March 19.
In addition to the usual free and public gaming panels there will be a track of programming for the rapidly expanding fields of virtual and augmented reality. These are open to anyone with a Film, Music, or Interactive badge.
And since the unspoken rule of SXSW is that no event space be left unutilized, the vacuum left by the departing video games at the Palmer Events Center will be filled by SX Create, SXSW’s hacker/DIY powwow, during the Interactive conference.
This article appears in July 10 • 2015.
