SXSW is a professional show, full of professional networking and professional parties and professional talks about drones that will fly over your head and protect you from the rain. But between the panels and meetings, I discovered that there’s actually a small, publicly accessible show floor that stays open for three days during the Gaming Expo. It’s a combination of game developers fresh out of GDC, comics and anime labels, a single aerospace / defense company (Northrop Grumman, which was there to advertise the James Webb space telescope), and more human beings than it seems possible to fit into a single hall. Oh, and a ton of tiny children wearing virtual reality headsets and swinging around VR lightsabers or control rings.
SXSW has its own geek convention, and it’s full of adorable kids in VR headsets
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
The Gaming Expo show floor could crush your soul. It will definitely crush your body. But it might also, for a few minutes, warm your heart.
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