Penny Arcade and the NES collection

[lailoken]

Well it just really makes you wonder, doesn't it?

There has been this news item on a couple of sites about this huge

776 NES games collection, which apparently means ALL american releases

minus 10. The last time I checked it was up to 5600$ on eBay!

So Gabe from Penny Arcade (Mike Krahulik) after checking out the awesomness of this thing just went right ahead and bought it! I never gave it too much thought but those guys must be making serious money to do this to simply give it away as a prize for a competition! So I'm curious, how much money is PA worth? Public trading... not quite, but who knows...

[Lechimp]

They can't make THAT much money, weren't they roommates up until just recently? I suppose that they might make enough to hold a convention though. They probably make a ton from advertising and the mini series comics that they do for UbiSoft

[nsps]

I think Gabe got a movie deal for one of his comics or something, unless they made all that up. Anyway, it is a promotional tool for the convention, so they can probably justify the expense. I can't imagine they'll do more than break even on the thing though. Anyone know how many people attend?

But 776 games is nothing. I have more NES games than that. Oh, you mean actual legal cartridges.

[lailoken]

that whole thing with the movie deal was completely made up... but I guess they make a lot of money on the PAX thing, but still... 10k$+??? jeeezlouise!

[nsps]

What was the final selling price?

They claim to have room for "thousands" of people, so they could make around $40,000* with 1,000 each day, and more if they have thousands and not one thousand. Given those figures and taking into account all the other costs, they'd probably need 2,000 people a day to make that prize a reasonable expense.

Anyway, half the time I don't know what they're talking about on the page as they talk about bitter rivalries and what not. I never know if it's all a joke or only some of it, so yeah, I didn't know if the film thing was real or what the comic was..

*This figure will vary depending on the number of early, pre- and at-the-door sales.

[Jake]

They haven't been roomates for years, and have even had their own office (and business manager) for a while now.

[tabacco]

I wonder if the games will become this year's Omegathon award.

Update: Ah, and having read the post, yes it will be

Don't forget, though, that to enter the Omegathon you need to register for PAX, which costs some money. I'm guessing that's where the costs are recovered. Remember that a business involves expenses as well as income

[nsps]

Don't forget, though, that to enter the Omegathon you need to register for PAX, which costs some money. I'm guessing that's where the costs are recovered. Remember that a business involves expenses as well as income

In case it wasn't clear, the "tickets" I referred to were various forms of admission to PAX. Anyway, the potential Omegathon prize would have to bring in 500 to 800 people who WOULD NOT have come otherwise to be worthwhile. My guess is that they wanted to have a cool prize and figured that they could recoup the cost with the rest of the expo.

P.S. Was it just me, or didn't the Powerglove kinda suck when you actually tried to use it?

[Roderick]

Okay, for a minute there, I read GAMING GLOVE instead of powerglove.

You gotta love the glove

[nsps]

Which glove—Gaming or Power? Or both?

[Roderick]

I meant powerglove. The one with the Gnarly Kid.

My head hurts with all those gloves.