Aaron Preziosi
Connector Editor
Editor’s note: I would like to extend my thanks to the PAX Media team for giving me a Media pass for this year’s PAX East. Without them, I would not have been able to see as much as I did, nor cover the event as thoroughly as I was able to.
From Thursday, March 26 to Sunday, March 29, Penny Arcade hosted PAX East 2026 in Boston, turning the Thomas M. Menino Convention Center into a massive exhibition of indie games, demos, presentations, interactive panels, showcases, tabletop games, and more.
For those unaware, PAX is a yearly show created by Penny Arcade in 2004 to exclusively celebrate gaming and game culture, extending not just to video games but also tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Magic the Gathering, and dozens of other RPGs and card games. According to the show’s website, since its inception, PAX has grown exponentially, and thanks to a partnership with Reed Exhibitions has come to cities around the world, such as San Antonio, Philadelphia, Melbourne, Australia and Boston of course. Notably, PAX embraces new technologies, rising diversity, minority voices within the gaming community, especially with its VR Freeplay and Diversity Lounge.
Over the years, many exhibitioners have come and gone from PAX East. Notably, “big three” of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have always had some sort of presence at most notable gaming events. PAX East was no exception, but following 2020’s show all but Nintendo had withdrawn, citing the pandemic as reasoning to do so, and Nintendo had drastically cut back their presence, scaling down to small demo booths and attractions. However, this year, Nintendo has a small pavilion dedicated to the new “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” DLC featuring a new co-op mode, as well as other Switch 2 titles “Pokopia” and “Pokémon Champions.” Sony also has some presence this year as well, albeit through partner Mega Cat Studios featuring their “God of War” spinoff “God of War Sons of Sparta.” Microsoft has not returned.
A major exhibitor this year was Digital Extremes, who featured their major success “Warframe” and its sister game “Soulframe” in an hour-long livestream in the enormous Main Stage theatre. Despite the theatre’s enormous size, the queue to enter the show spanned the majority of the convention center’s second floor. The show itself diverged from the norms of previous years, adopting a format akin to a standard panel rather than an in-depth developer’s stream. Host Megan Everett had special guests Nick Apostolides, known for his role as Leon Kennedy across the Resident Evil franchise, and Rocco Botte, creator of web series Mega64, compete in minigames to reveal more content to the audience. These reveals consisted of upcoming features for “Warframe,” teasers for “Soulframe,” and a red band cinematic trailer featuring Voruna Prime, an upgraded character soon to be available to players who calls upon imagery of werewolves and bestial predators, stalking the battlefield unseen until she finds her prey. Viewer discretion is advised for anyone looking to watch the trailer, as it contains blood and violence. As for “Soulframe” specifics, the teasers shown confirmed two things: Players will be able to ride a large direwolf around the game’s sprawling, verdant world, and that they will also be able to set sail and fare the seas beyond the current map
available to them. There has been no release date confirmed for either of these features.
The tabletop scene was alive and well, as always. Advertising for a Magic the Gathering crossover pack featuring Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was all over the convention this year, and the tabletop area itself took up roughly half of the expo hall. There were plenty of colorful dice sets, table accessories such as rolling trays and dice towers, miniature figurines, player tokens, notebooks, play mats, props and even jewelry like necklaces, earrings and eyeglass chains. These aren’t just for Dungeons and Dragons either; PAX East is home to a lively tabletop scene and features dozens of indie releases such as “Fire Tower,” a tactical pattern-laying game where players are tasked with protecting their watchtower from a forest fire, as well as sabotaging their opponents. There was also a booth for the all-new “Cyberpunk TCG,” a trading card game based on the iconic Cyberpunk franchise featuring characters from both the video game “Cyberpunk 2077” and its anime counterpart “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.”
All things considered, it was a good year at PAX East this year with lots to see. According to the official PAX East website, the show is slated to return to Boston once again next year from April 22 to 25.
