All Articles: World of Warcraft

Kung fu pandas… where does Blizzard come up with this stuff? OK, believe it or not, the Pandaren race of kung fu pandas has been a part of Warcraft lore since Warcraft III. But they’ve been absent from the series since World of Warcraft launched in 2004. But now they’re back and they’re taking a starring role in the MMORPG’s fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria.

“Players have been asking to see the Pandaren in World of Warcraft since the game’s launch, and we’re excited to finally be able to give them a proper re-introduction to Azeroth,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “In addition to the new playable race and class, Mists of Pandaria contains a huge amount of new content, and we’re looking forward to sharing more information about all of it at BlizzCon and beyond.”

No release date has been announced for the expansion, but it will add a bevy of new features including a new class, a higher level cap, new zones and Dungeon Challenge Modes. Check out a full list of all the new features after the break. (more…)

World of Warcraft players have toppled dragons, demons and the dreaded Lich King, but nothing can prepare them for their next challenge: ninja pandas. Yes, you read that right.

WoW developer Blizzard has filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for Mists of Pandaria, likely making it the title of the next World of Warcraft expansion.

So where do the ninja pandas fit in? Check out this description of Pandaria from WoWWiki:

Pandaren hail from the distant island nation of Pandaria, which non-pandarens have never seen or ever visited to this day. The Pandaren Empire was founded before the Great Sundering of the world, and is believed to be just as old as the kaldorei civilization. It shared and traded resources, goods, ideas and mystic knowledge with the haughty night elves of central Kalimdor in the years before the War of the Ancients. As the night elves’ obsession with the forces of magic drove them to the brink of madness, the gentle pandaren severed ties, withdrew and closed their borders, and left the night elves behind forever.

Obviously, no further details about Mists of Pandaria was revealed by Blizzard.

Though it comes as no surprise, Blizzard Entertainment has done it again with its fourth installment of its highly successful PC game World of Warcraft. With World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Blizzard has set record monthly sales for PC-games, selling more than 4.7 million copies in its first month.

According to internal company records, one-day sales of the game upon its release were more than 3.3 million. Before the release of its third expansion, World of Warcraft had over 12 million subscribers, which makes sense considering its second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, previously held the title of fastest-selling PC game of all time. Cataclysm has since broken that record.

Cataclysm brings new quests and lands for players to explore, and Blizzard CEO and Co-founder Mike Morhaime has called it their “biggest and most ambitious expansion yet.” Blizzard’s loyal community have helped to maintain World of Warcraft’s position as the “world’s most popular subscription-based MMORPG,” and with this recent news, it doesn’t appear to be moving from that position any time soon.