SOUTH BEND, Indiana (WNDU) – The second annual video game trade show took place this weekend at the South Bend Century Center.
Since the Century Center became home to the area’s only esports arena, Pwr^ South Bend now has both amateurs and professionals embracing its gaming potential.
It’s a place where all gamers go, but this weekend a lot of people are putting away their controllers and putting out some of their gaming gadgets.
“I’ve always wanted to see locally where I could use my talents,” said Digital Artist 2B.
A year after its Century Center debut, Power Up South Bend returned for a second straight year.
“It’s really exciting to know that we’ve already had more attendees through the doors than last year,” said Brain Exner, founder of Pwr^ South Bend
And not only is the locally-owned company helping to bring the digital world closer to thousands of gamers, Brain Exner, founder of Pwr Up, says it’s working to boost the local economy.
“We have people who come from abroad. We have guests from abroad as well as participants. People have gone from Chicago, Grand Rapids, down from Indy, up from Indy who are just into video games,” Exner said.
Dozens of vendors lined up to highlight why they were here.
“It’s always fun to meet different people who also have the talent for art and the passion to be creative,” 2B said.
But for Digital Artist 2B, it also helps him pursue his passion.
“It can be helpful when it comes to getting paid, but it can also fuel passion,” 2B said.
“There’s an opportunity here to do so many different things because traditionally people have respected South Bend just for Notre Dame football and everything else,” Exner said. “It was kind of a dead, dying city. But now South Bend is being rebuilt, and part of that should be video games.”
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