To my knowledge PAX starter out because E3 lost its way. It's cool to see that the effectively solved the problem and made PAX what E3 was supposed to be, at least for gamers and game journalists.

Perhaps a note for those who don't know, penny arcade here stands for the web comic penny arcade. In the comic the main characters play and criticise video games as they come out, as well as going through general life stuff. For the past decade its extreme popularity has made it one of the industries biggest media.