Holly Longdale and Clay Stone to Open PAX Aus With World of Warcraft: Forever Keynote

World of Warcraft: Forever is heading to PAX Aus, and Blizzard is sending two of its top developers to open the show. Executive producer Holly Longdale will deliver the Storytime keynote on Friday October 9, with associate production director Clay Stone joining her for a deep dive into one of Forever’s new dungeons.

PAX Aus runs from Friday October 9 to Sunday October 11 AEDT in Melbourne, and Forever will have a presence across all three days, from the main stage to a hands-on booth running the beta.

Holly Longdale’s Storytime Keynote Opens PAX Aus

Longdale is the Storytime keynote speaker, which means she’s the one kicking off PAX Aus 2026. She’ll draw on two decades working in the games industry to share stories and lessons from her career, talk about how the Warcraft universe keeps evolving, and cover the role online player communities play in keeping MMOs alive.

That last topic feels especially relevant right now. WoW has leaned hard on its community for years, and with subscriber numbers always a talking point, hearing the executive producer speak about it directly should be interesting.

Clay Stone’s World of Warcraft: Forever Dungeon Deep Dive

Clay Stone will take the stage alongside Longdale to give an in-depth look at one of the new dungeons coming to World of Warcraft: Forever. Blizzard says he’ll go behind the scenes on the team’s design philosophy, creative process and approach to building new gameplay experiences, with an exclusive look at the dungeon itself.

This is the bit I’m most excited about. New dungeons in a vanilla-era game are a bold idea, and after Blizzard announced Forever as a third way to play, seeing how the team designs fresh content for classic-style gameplay is the thing that’ll tell us whether this works.

Twitch Livestream on October 9, 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. AEDT

Can’t make it to Melbourne? The Storytime opening keynote will stream live on both the Warcraft and PAX Twitch channels on October 9 from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. AEDT.

For anyone in Europe or the Americas, that’s a late-night or early-morning watch, so check the conversion for your time zone before the day.

Signing Session, Beta Booth and Pinny Arcade Pin

After the keynote, Longdale and Stone will host an informal signing session on Friday October 9 from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. AEDT. It takes place in the Meet and Greet room, located between the Owl Bear Theatre and Drop Bear Theatre.

The World of Warcraft: Forever booth will be open all weekend, from Friday to Sunday, with hands-on time on the beta. There’s also a themed photo spot for selfies and a special “Raid for Riches” quest card to collect.

Complete the quests and you’ll unlock a World of Warcraft: Forever Pinny Arcade pin, plus an entry into a prize draw with a range of rewards. The pin is limited to one per person while stocks last, so pin collectors will want to hit the booth early on Friday rather than leaving it until Sunday afternoon.

If you’ve been following the Forever news so far, from the switch to a single megaserver to controller support, PAX Aus looks like the first chance for Australian players to get their hands on the beta in person. Bring a friend, queue up and see if the classic formula still clicks.

Blizzard ANZ will be sharing updates from the show on its Instagram account throughout the weekend for anyone following along from home.

Source: press release from Blizzard Entertainment. Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.