PAX Australia is around the corner, October 26 – 28 in Melbourne, and the biggest gaming and tech fest in Aus always draws the biggest talent, this year is no exception with a slew of Bethesda’s best and brightest flying in for the fun!

This is about as big as it gets!

• Pete Hines, Senior Vice President – Global Marketing and Communications, Bethesda Softworks

Pete Hines is the Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications at Bethesda Softworks. He joined Bethesda in 1999 and has since overseen the launches of Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, RAGE, Skyrim, Dishonored 1 + 2, The Evil Within 1 + 2, DOOM (2016), The Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 4, Prey, and Wolfenstein: The New Order and The New Colossus among many others.

• Tim Willits, Studio Director, id Software

Tim Willits is the Studio Director at id Software and is a veteran of the video game industry with more than 23 years of experience. He brought his game development, design and creative expertise to id Software in 1995 to work on Quake after impressing the development team with DOOM levels created in his spare time and distributed free over the Internet.

Willits is now overseeing development on id Software’s, RAGE 2.  He’s credited with design and leading the development teams in achieving critical acclaim and industry accolades for; QUAKE II, QUAKE III Arena, DOOM 3, QUAKE IV, RAGE, and most recently Quake Champions.

Willits attended the University of Minnesota where he studied computer science and business.

• Matt Firor, President and Game Director, ZeniMax Online Studios

Matt is Game Director of “The Elder Scrolls Online” at ZeniMax Online. Formerly, he was a co-founder of Mythic Entertainment, and Producer of the 2001 hit MMOPRG “Dark Age of Camelot”. Going back into the early days of video gaming, he was designer, producer, writer, and audio designer of 12 other online titles starting from the late 1980’s. He has also worked as an industry consultant.

Matt will also be visiting Armageddon Expo 2018, where he will be giving a special presentation and attending an ESO Community Party. We’ll be sharing more details for these events soon!

Want to see them live?

Fans can catch Pete, Tim and Matt at these panels:

 Friday 26 October | 12:00pm | Utopia/Dystopia: Environment-Drive Storytelling | Galah Theatre

As more continues to be revealed about the upcoming release of post-apocalyptic Rage 2, Tim Willits will join Rae Johnston, Editor of Junkee and Al Gibb, CEO of Mighty Serious, in a panel diving into all things “utopian perfection” and “dystopian worlds”.

Our perceptions of our future environment is shaped by differing narratives in scientific research outcomes and pop-culture musings, which we are exposed to in many written and visual forms.

With video games using these perfect environments as key storytelling drivers; from Mirror’s Edge idealistic urban environment to Fallout’s bleak wastelands- are our actual future environments easily acknowledged thanks to repeat representation in our game worlds?

Friday 26 October | 2:30pm | Bethesda in Conversation | EB Theatre

Nuclear apocalypse. Killing demons on Mars. Saving Tamriel from destruction. Killing Nazis in the 60s. Another, different kind of apocalypse. More potatoes than you can physically carry. For over 30 years, Bethesda has been known for crafting award-winning, genre-defining games. Join Pete Hines, Tim Willits, and Matt Firor as they take you on a journey through their decades working in games. No fast travel, either.

Friday 26 October | 5:30pm | id Software Retrospective | Main

From Commander Keen to Rage 2, id Software is in the shooting baddies business. And since 1991, business has been booming. Join studio director Tim Willits as he delves into the history of id, hitting the highs, the lows and the untold stories of some of the longest-running franchises in gaming, including Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein.

Saturday 27 October | 2:00pm | Bethesda Trivia | Galah Theatre

Yes, it’s a PAX staple! We’re sure you know where to find a radscorpion that wears a pair of glasses, but can Bethesda bigwigs Pete Hines, Tim Willits, and Matt Firor guess Bradman’s batting average? This time, the questions go both ways! What do they know? Do they know things? Let’s find out!