Next year’s PAX Australia will be held at Melbourne Convention Centre from October 31 until Nov 2, making it almost three times the size of last year’s event.
Louise Asher, Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business made the announcement today at the first day of Games Connect Asia Pacific.
“PAX is the world’s leading games festival and the return of PAX Australia to Melbourne for the second consecutive year highlights Victoria’s reputation as a key hub for games development in the Asia Pacific region,” she said.
“This year’s event in Melbourne represented the first time that PAX had been held outside of the United States – not only was it a great coup for Melbourne but the event was a runaway success.”
The change was made, at least in part, because of the overwhelming success of the first PAX Australia this year, with the event selling out months in advance.
Robert Khoo, President of Penny Arcade, now believes that PAX Australia will be a permanent fixture on the calendar.
“The games community here is incredible, and PAX Australia is here to stay,” he said.
Guy Blomberg, PAX Australia Content & Community Manager, is looking forward to the extra space.
“Having PAX Aus 2014 in a different venue next year gives us so much more room to play with, it’s going to be fantastic, he said. “To put it in perspective, we’re going to have three times the amount space in our theatre/panel rooms!”
Comments
38 responses to “This Is Where PAX 2014 Will Be Held…”
Hmm, so they decided to book it the weekend before Uni Exams start. That could be an Issue.
Yeah, my immediate reaction was “oh dear, that’s not good timing for students”.
Not for attendance, only for exam marks.
That first sentence confuses me. What year is it?
edit: Aaand fixed. Now my sense of space-time continuity is once again at peace.
Loved Pax2013 – everything except the crazy lines. I’ll definitely be going again.
Next year. Better time of year to have it too.
Yep! Best part was catching up with all the people here.
Biggest issue was the lines. I didn’t end up getting into any of the events. So I’m glad they’ve got a venue with much more capacity now.
More playable games will be good too. Hopefully next year they’ll have a big lineup of Xbox One and PS4 games.
Man those lines!
I told a mate of mine I’d meet him in line for the PA Q&A, and I got there and the line was massive. I couldn’t find him anywhere, so I waited. 15 minutes later the Enforcers say it’s full up (thanks for making us wait anyway!), I call his phone, he was inside already – just walked in and didn’t even notice the line. Turned up 40 minutes early to every other event from then on, just to have a chance at getting in.
I was over an hour early for some events and still couldn’t make it. 🙁
If it wasn’t for the cool people I got to hang around with, I probably would have hated the whole experience.
You better be there Mr Serrels
PAX North 2! (cc. TAY) It’s still a thing…
WOO! now, when do tickets go on sale?
That’s great, the size of the panels was the glaring downside of PAXau
With that change I’m now guaranteed to go, and with sold out show last year hopefully they will get a bit more interest from some of the big names and MS might actually have more than an empty glass case there
They had the XBone on display there, just not all the time.
I never saw it and it was kind of a running joke afterwards which is why I made that comment. Still MS made more of an effort than Nintendo or Sony from what I remember, so hopefully we will get a better showing from all three next year
What? Nintendo had a massive presence! They ran a Pokemon tournament. They had the new Mario for Wii U, they had Wind Waker, they had Pikmin 3, all playable. They had a the new 3DS Zelda, Sonic, and a bunch of other unreleased 3DS games too (again, all playable)…
Probably the only more popular booth was the LoL one.
Sony had nothing, and MS had an empty glass case and a shitty advertisement panel…
Right you are
I was confusing them not doing a keynote at E3 with PAXau. I didn’t really see much Nintendo stuff personally so didn’t make an impact on me. Remembering stuff now that you mention it though
Though in fairness the XBox keynote really didn’t show anything much more than what we’d already seen from previous keynotes
Nintendo also had an Animal Crossing panel where they gave away Tortimer figurines and had Animal Crossing QR codes for in game PAX Aus patterns.
MS had a panel and a display of the XBone that wasn’t always there.
Sony had nothing.
I took a photo of the empty stand with the idea that I’ll be clever and photoshop an N infront of ‘one’
One day I’ll actually do it.
I too thought it was a myth, but then I got to see it! And almost touch it. Almost.
I loved PAX this year, seeing the cosplayers and have great gaming conversations in the indie arcade, lines to try some demos and Portable gaming areas was a lot of fun.
Thats a shame. I had found a really good spot at the train station near the showgrounds to shelter from the rain so I will have to find somewhere else now. Hope I can make it back there.
Aww man, now parking will cost more.
Not if you park in port melbourne and jump on the tram for 5 mins 😀
Awww yeah!!!!
2013 was amazing….. Ill be hitting 2014 tickets as soon as they go on sale :oD
Anyone who’s been to EB Expo and PAX AUS would you care to tell me which you prefered?
If you’re going because you want to play new games that aren’t out yet, go to EB Expo.
If you want to be immersed in gaming culture, innovation and fun, PAX is the 100x better.
They’re two different shows, IMO. PAX is held for gamers and the panels reflect that. EBX is more of a trade show with panels thrown in.
PAX by a fair margin, EB Expo is getting better but the sense of community at PAX was far superior. If you just want to play unreleased AAA games, go to EB Expo, for anything else go to PAX.
I didn’t go to EB expo, but as others are saying… EB expo is more like e3; a place for publishers to show off their games and for gamers to get a chance to play them.
PAX is much more about the community. The free-gaming, the board games, the panels, the music on each night… its about being part of the world-wide gaming community.
The first is advertisement, the second is a celebration.
I hope they can get some of the Giant Bomb duders to come.
I will be there and working as an enforcer again! Come down to the main theatre and hangout in my line of hope! LINE OF HOPE!
Despite the flaws of the first it was still an incredible experience. I will be there again with MrsBS 😀
Good because getting tickets to PAX Melbourne this year was a joke, I can’t imagine how many gamers missed out on going…me included.
Eh? They had three day tickets up for days, possibly even weeks.
I concur, there was plenty of time for people to buy tickets.
But the daily tickets were on sale for a few months, weren’t they?
I waited a few days before buying my single day ticket, and I seem to recall it being a few weeks later before the tickets ran out.
This is right in the middle of the Spring Carnival, Melbourne will be packed but it is also going to make getting accommodation a nightmare. Minimum stays for apartments at expensive rates or getting a place well outside the city. Considering they have the whole year to choose from this is very rough timing.
Ill be there again. Have a Kotaku meet up? Guys…? Guuuuuuuuuys? (and gals)
Whoa that’s only 2 days gap before Melbourne Cup 2014. Should be interesting…
Was so much fun this year, think I was probably one of the youngest there with a 3 day pass which was both exciting and daunting. The small theatre spaces really was a big downside, especially having to wait in queue for an hour or two, then not being able to go in because there wasn’t QUITE enough seats :L
I think she has you beat
I don’t see a pass!.. Haha, yeah, true though.
Hopefully by having a bigger venue and bigger theatre spaces, we’ll have less waiting in lines!
I hope they have a good ol’ successful event