The Penny Arcade Expo hit 58,500 attendees this year - way up from 2007's 37,000 and just a shade lower than E3 in its prime.

Although the general feeling was that the con was a big success, there were complaints that some panels and demos were difficult/impossible to get in to due to overcrowding and the organizers admit that there is work to be done for next year.

"We finally stopped doubling our attendance," said Penny Arcade Business Development manager Robert Khoo, "but lord I'm not sure if we could have handled any more people if they showed up. Key learnings for next year? Better line management and more space!"

For the 2009 event, Khoo told BigDownload.com that they were going to introduce some practical crowd management measures.

"We have a few ideas to manage that problem for 2009 including wristbands for popular events or just a straight-up hard count of people in line."

Penny Arcade Expo 2008: 58,500 attendees [BigDownload]