rAge, the ultimate computer, gaming and technology expo is locked on target - the Coca Cola Dome in Northgate from the 29th of September to the 1st of October 2006.
2006 will see rAge in its fourth year of showcasing the most popular and cutting-edge computer and video games, technology, gadgets and products. With 60% more floor space and the biggest ever gaming LAN in South Africa (1200 gamers), the expo is set to be bigger, better and louder than ever before.
rAge will highlight the latest in games and computer technology, and those who attend the expo range from IT professionals, to gamers, to gadget hunters, to families just looking for a fun day out. Activities taking place during the weekend include live local performances, loads of prizes and giveaways, celebrity appearances, PC gaming competitions, sneak peeks at some of the hottest gaming titles to be released in the upcoming months, a sneak peek from Games Emporium at Magic The Gathering’s new release called Time Spiral, and the South African launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360™.
Gaming is one of the fastest growing sectors of the entertainment industry – after only thirty years in existence, global revenue for video games (PC, Sony PlayStation, Game Boy etc.) is already around 30 billion dollars a year, and is expected to reach more than 35 billion by 2007. When Halo 2 (an Xbox console title) was released on the same day as the Spiderman 2 movie in the US, it outsold the movie release! In fact, the film industry, which has been going for around 100 years, only has a global revenue 50% larger (at $45 000 000 000) than that of the video game industry. With figures like this to back them up, predictions that by 2008 video games will be the second most popular form of entertainment, having overtaken music, don’t seem all that far fetched.
Even in South Africa, where a large proportion of the population does not have access to computers, gaming and interactive computing are growing at an enormous rate. In the youth market alone, over 25% of South Africans spend more than 3 hours a day either watching TV or playing video games!
In addition to the rapid rate at which the number of gamers in South Africa is growing, the number of South Africans taking gaming more and more seriously is also growing. More and more people are starting to see that there are careers gaming, both in professional gaming and in game development.
Three of the exhibitors at rAge 2006 are training or educational institutions that offer some sort of game development-related training - Learn 3D (an accredited AutoDesk Media & Entertainment training centre for 3D animation and visual effects), Boston Media House (one of South Africa’s leading schools for animation, graphic design and media studies) and City Varsity (one of South Africa’s leading schools for design, multimedia and entertainment production) all offer training and courses that can prepare students for a future in game design and development.
And for anyone who thinks that gaming is just a guy thing, think again, because girlz Of destruction (g.O.d.), an international 7-member all-girl gaming team who are widely regarded as the highest level professional female QUAKE™ 4 players, are going to be kicking ass at the VIA Technologies stand and in a number of on-stage exhibition matches at rAge!
But rAge isn’t only about gaming. The products and technology on show this year include ready-built PCs, notebooks, PC hardware components, LCD monitors, optical storage, data storage and communications, networking equipment, wireless technology, VoIP technology, gaming accessories and other peripherals, entertainment software, consoles and console games, MP3 players, PDAs, Magic the Gathering role-playing cards, comic books, anime figurines, music and DVDs among others.
So whether you’re shopping for a new graphics card to improve your gaming experience, on the look-out for an specialist IT company that can bring your company further into the 21st century, looking for a PDA to simplify your life or an MP3 player to listen to at gym, looking for some case fans to mod your new PC, dying to see what releases your favourite game developer is working on, on the hunt for a few expo bargains or just there to be blown away by developments in entertainment technology, rAge will have something for you.
Doors will be open from 10:00 to 18:00 on the Friday (29th September) and Saturday (30th September), and from 10:00 to 16:00 on the Sunday (1st October), and tickets will cost R30.00 per person.
For more information about rAge, visit www.rageexpo.co.za.
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