PAX Aus 2025 Delivers an Epic Weekend of Gaming, Community, Australia Firsts, and a Newly Crowned Cosplay Champion
The lights dimmed and the crowds dispersed, but the buzz is still echoing after PAX Aus 2025. This year’s event delivered one of the boldest, most immersive editions yet with fan favourites and new launches entertaining the crowds. Over three unforgettable days at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, gaming fans, creators and industry heavyweights converged in celebration of everything that makes the gaming community so great.
This year’s event featured:
- Blockbuster Firsts & Hands-On Demos: Gaming giants including Nintendo and Xbox showcased new releases, hardware and exclusive demos. Attendees got an early taste of Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Switch 2 Edition), explored Lumiose City, got hands on with the new ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, tested Metroid Prime 4: Beyond with new Joy-Con 2 mouse controls as well as playing the new Kirby Air Riders game.
- Other exhibitors came to the show with innovations and creative activations such as MSI with their new RTX 5070 Ti Project Zero GPU and Aftershock’s partnership with @broxh_ who is carving an exclusive wooden panel for one of their PCs.
- Esports, Tournaments & Competitive Energy: From school and university leagues to major showmatch battles, PAX upheld its competitive spirit. The Australian Esports League Nationals brought high stakes battles and fans cheered through live commentary, and the PAX Arena hosted the electrifying finals of the Rainbow Six Siege APL Major Qualifier.
- Tabletop in partnership with eBay: Beyond the digital realm, tabletop gaming remained strong with fans thrilled to see Warhammer as part of the largest ever Tabletop area, with more hands on demos and freeplay than ever before. Other highlights were a first look at League of Legends Rift Bound TCG which was extremely popular and of course there were many learn to play sessions across the weekend including Magic the Gathering and Disney Lorcana. Miniature painting enthusiasts could also get their fix with two mini paint and take spaces – one run by Warhammer.
- The expo’s PAX Rising and Indie Showcase spotlighted homegrown and international independent creators, bringing fresh voices and novel mechanics to the table, with people commenting on how incredible the quality was of these ‘new to the scene’ Indies. And CODE from NZ continued to demonstrate real Kiwi creativity with games like the terrifying tentacled boss in Middle Management.
- Memorable Activations & Fan Moments: From Bethesda’s immersive Fallout diner, to The Sims’ camp-style interactive setup, to Devolver & Massive Monster’s reveal of Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven chapel, the show floor was alive with layered experiences, merch drops and fan photo ops.
- Thought Leadership & Community Dialogue: Dozens of panels and keynotes delved into industry trends, inclusion, accessibility and creative processes including panels from the Gearbox team around their legendary game, Borderlands and the Playstation panel, celebrating 25 years of PS2. Meanwhile, community-driven events, cosplay contests and speedruns added character beyond the exhibits.
- The panel schedule not only brought thought-provoking debates, but also side-splitting laughs with the likes of the Pokémon Family Feud – Creator Edition and the D&D But Donations Make it Spicier session, where fans put their stomachs on the line for a good cause.
- Incredible gaming talent including Magic: The Gathering’s Gavin Verhey who kicked off PAX 2025 with his fantastic storytime where he spoke about 15 lessons he had learnt from 15 years of designing cards with Wizards of the Coast. Gavin then went on to run a 64 person Pauper event and a super fun Australian version of the Command Zone. Joining Gavin were Baldur’s Gate’s, Amelia Tyler, Ify Nwadiwe, who is definitely as funny IRL and Obsidian’s Josh Sawyer, to name a few.
- PAX Aus showcased the most incredible cosplay the country has ever seen including The Crown Championships of Cosplay which saw Giorgia Costumes cosplaying as Rococo Bunny take out the title, sealing their ticket to the world championships to be held in the UK next year.
- And the Together Lounge created a welcoming space for everyone and anyone to hang out, find like-minded people and play some games.
So as the sun sets over the MCEC, laptops and backpacks are packed up and costumes put away, there is always some sadness that the event is over for another year, but this year’s PAX Aus certainly gave us a LOT of memories.
Related Posts
Sci-fi classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day re-scored for 35th anniversary cinema and music experience at Hamer Hall →
PAX AUS DAY 3 – @PAXAUS2025 @MCEC →
PAX AUS DAY 2 – @PAXAUS2025 @MCEC →
