While the main focus for many at PAX East is to wander the expo hall floors and check out games or play some tabletop adventures there is a massive amount of Panels happening at all times. These panels range from small discussions on how to find roleplaying groups to massive presentations from companies like Gearbox for Borderlands 4.

I popped into a lot of panels over the four days at PAX East, enjoying the music of Bioshop Infinite, listening to talks about Romance And Intimacy In Games and massive devstreams on the future of Warframe. There is so much to see and do outside of the expo halls it can get overwhelming so I find making a schedule of panels that interest me helped and I dropped into them if I was able.

There were however two massive panels I was able to get front row seating for looking at a couple of very different major games coming soon. The new Mafia game set in 1900’s Sicily and the collaboration between Magic the Gathering and Final Fantasy were very entertaining and got my interest very high for both releases.

Mafia: The Old Country Developer Panel – Family Takes Sacrifice

This was a fun one, I have only dabbled in the Mafia games, but watching this panel made me want to try them all. Hosted by Greg Miller from Kinda Funny featuring Hangar 13 Studio President Nick Baynes, Game Director Alex Cox, and Cinematics Director Tomáš Hřebíček this panel had in person and recorded segments showing off what we can expect once the game releases.

Set during the early years of the Mafia’s reign in Sicily, Mafia the Old Country will look at the story of Enzo Favara. He was an orphan who was forced to labor in the sulphur mines and then gets taken in by the Cosa Nostra family and has to prove his worth to them to survive and move up in the family.

With this release the developers discussed how they wanted to have a strong focus on a tightly woven narratove experience instead of a sprawling open world experience. This allowed them to really narrow in on Enzo’s journey as he moves from set piece to set piece in this gorgeous looking 3rd person adventuire game.

There was a big focus on the actors, in particular Riccardo Frascari as Enzo Favara, Carina Conti. as Isabella Torrisi and Johnny Santiago as the head of the family Don Bernardo Torrisi. They all had pre-recorded messages for us to watch at the panel and seeing them in action in game I was blown away by how they looked and feel, the game is in Unreal Engine 5 and it was quite impressive to see.

Because the developers wanted to have a deep sense of realism they spent a good deal of time touring Sicily and speaking to locals and historians about the Mafia presence there in the 1900’s. They researched the knife fights that were common, tactics, family traditions and rules of conduct and really tried to incorporate this into the game.

I cam away from the panel really impressed with what I saw and doubly so by the passion expressed by the team on stage. They have been making Mafia games for over 20 years and this team is still excited to continue making them and having Mafia The Old Country be the best one yet.

Have a watch of the panel above and keep an eye out for the game when it releases August 8, 2025.

Magic: The Gathering x FINAL FANTASY Debut Showcase

This was a big must see panel for me at PAX East. I have been a fam of Magic the Gathering since it started many, many years ago and addicted to Final Fantasy since FF3 (6 really) was released in North America for the SNES.

The focus of this panel was on the upcoming release of the MTG x Final Fantasy CCG that is launching in June and will feature dozens of boosters and six new commander decks. This is massive not just for MTG, but for the 100’s of millions of Final Fantasy fans around the world.

Hosted by perhaps the most charming man in the world, Ben Starr of FF XVI (and many other games) fame, the panel featured card reveals, insight form the designers and a fun trivia game featuring wrestlers (!) and Karen Fukuhara. It was a fun couple of hours that had the audience and I laughing, cheering and generally just having a blast from start to finish.

The meat of the panel was going through each Final Fantasy game and revealing what cards they focused on from each numbered game. Starting from the beginning they showed heroes, villains, animals and the new land types.

The cards themselves where incredibly interesting as they asked all of the mainstream artists who designed the games from the beginning to draw cards, OF THEIR CHOICE, from the series they worked on. These cards became the definitive ones that were featured in each games loadout, often with variants triggered through transformation or evolution.

Examples were shown of Kefka (FFVI) having a variant after he defeats the party mid way through game, the hero Terra also has variants that can get triggered. Crowd favorites like Cloud and Sephiroth (FFVII), Vivi (FFIX) and Squall (FFXIII) were all shown on the big screen in card formal to shouts of excitement and fanfare.

Once of the best reveals was when they got the last mainline game, FFXVI, and Ben Starr who played Clive in the game stood up and revealed his characters card on the t-shirt he was wearing. Just classic Ben Starr amazingness and it drove the crowd to their feet with room crushing cheers and shouts.

There was also a mid panel trivia game where audience members worked with the celebrity guests and on stage peers and tried to answer questions. It was fun and a nice palate cleanser but dragged a little too long when all we wanted was to see more cards!

The reveals were interesting as was the approach they are taking to this version of MTG featuring the Final Fantasy Universe. Lands are adjusted and also remain the same, many heroes are mult-colored requiring substantial planning and the big name heroes have stunning commander decks that can be bought and enhanced with boosters.

All in all this was the most enjoyable panel I have been to in a while. The host, guests, reveals and just general exuberance for the release was infectious. MTG and Final Fantasy collaboration releases June 13th.