Gamers, cosplayers and families who love all aspects of gaming have been able to enjoy the PAX Australia gaming festival for years, with this year celebrating a decade of PAX Australia!

PAX Aus is the gamer’s home away from home – a place to hang with friends and make new ones. Per the site’s home page, PAX Aus describes itself as “a place to uncover that hidden indie gem or that place to play Catan till it gets dark.

“PAX just hits differently – we’ve seen wedding proposals, sweet rolls, ibis infestations, sea shanties, and geez, a whole bunch of kebabs eaten too! It’s that time of year where the Australian gaming community gets together and has a bloody good time!”

The organisers promise you’ll see “the latest hardware, newest releases, new interactive content areas and a jam packed 3 days – all sprinkled with a flavour of our 10 years celebration.”

Naturally, all the big gaming players will be there, and this year, you’ll even be able to see a retro gem – the Atari 2600, which is being re-launched anew as the Atari 2600+, billed as “a modern day faithful recreation of the pioneering console that first appeared in 1977”, and it will be “on display at PAX Aus next week in the Classic Gaming area.”

Launching worldwide on November 17, 2023 it will be available to pre-order for AUD $189.95.

There’s also gaming legends Nintendo which have revealed more of their PAX plans – Not only will PAX visitors be able to experience Super Mario Bros. Wonder ahead of release, they will also be able to play a stack of new titles!

These include Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, Part 1: The Teal Mask, Detective Pikachu Returns and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown on Nintendo Switch.

Detective Pikachu Returns is launching on the first day of PAX, Friday 6th October. Also available to play on the Nintendo stand will be an unreleased game from Square Enix – STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R. See all the Nintendo PAX news here.

There’s also the announcement of a Fireside chat with Endo Takuma (Creator of TENCHU & Studio head behind OCTOPATH TRAVELLER), and there’s a video on Endo PAX Aus have shared:

So, with less than a week to go, excitement levels are nearly reaching a fever pitch!

The PAX Aus app is live now, available from all your favourite download spots, and it’s highly recommended PAX Aus attendees download it, as you’ll have all the PAX Aus information, quite literally, at your fingertips and can map out your plan of attack for the weekend.

There’s also the PAX Aus World Map so that you can navigate your way around the Convention and Exhibition Centre – see it here.

Secondly, the PAX merchandise swag has just launched featuring tees, hoodies and jackets, bags, lanyards, cards, which you can see here.

The iconic Pin Chicken also returns, which this year takes us ‘back to the future’ with Pinny McFly – sporting the most epic mullet and plugged into its trusty walkman, and it’s an awesome bit of retro kit.

Pinny McFly will be available during official PAX Aus pin trading sessions in the Queue Hall daily from 3:00pm – 3:30pm.

Besides the Fireside chat with Takuma Endo, Director of Tenchu and President of Acquire Studios, there’s also one with Bethesda’s Creative & Game Directors, John Johanas and Rich Lambert, who will be keeping people warm at their Fireside when they lift the curtain behind creating some of Bethesda’s most loved games – The Elder Scrolls Online and Hi-Fi RUSH.

Another first showing at PAX Aus 2023 will be Bandai Namco who will showcase Tekken 8 which will be playable for the first time in Australia in the Console Freeplay area.

The cast of Deerstalker Pictures’ hit Dungeons & Dragons inspired comedy web-series ‘1 For All’ will be hosting a panel to answer all your burning questions, as well as doing a meet and greet.

The PAX Adventurer’s Guild brought to you by Epic Armoury Australia is also being welcomed back – they are giving visitors the chance to try their hand at real life LARP-ing quests from 11am-4pm each day of PAX in the Community Room on level 2 of the Convention Centre.

There’s plenty more, so if you’re into gaming, it’ll be an incredible experience you won’t want to miss!

Check it all out here!