Blizzard announced it at BlizzCon. I misspelled the expansion title in the forum topic; the correct spelling is seen below. Here's the full e-mail sent to investors by Blizzard:
Fourth expansion to Blizzard Entertainment's critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game reintroduces the mysterious pandaren race to Azeroth
ANAHEIM, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for the fourth expansion to World of Warcraft®, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Unveiled to a sold-out crowd at the company's BlizzCon® gaming festival, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria™ lifts the fog of mystery surrounding a long-lost continent that has been newly rediscovered following the events of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm™. The new expansion reintroduces the elusive pandaren, originally seen in Blizzard's real-time strategy game Warcraft® III, as a playable race and adds a brand-new player class: the martial-arts-focused Monk. While exploring the mysteries of an exotic new land and advancing to the new level cap of 90, players will experience a range of new content and game features, including new quests and dungeons, group scenarios and "challenge" modes, pet battles, and more.
"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."
In the upcoming expansion, players will be able to explore the long-lost continent of Pandaria, which has remained hidden from the world since the sundering of Azeroth over ten thousand years ago. In the aftermath of the Cataclysm played out in World of Warcraft's third expansion, Pandaria's heroes are emerging from their land's lush forests and cloud-ringed mountains to choose sides in the escalating war between the Alliance and the Horde and to share the extraordinary secrets of their ancient martial arts. As tensions between the factions near a breaking point following the discovery of this new world, players will be called upon to explore Pandaria's exotic expanses, make contact with its strange indigenous creatures, and unlock the world-changing secrets that have been hiding in the mists for millennia.
New features coming in the game's fourth expansion include:
Launched in November 2004, World of Warcraft is the world's most popular MMORPG. The game's third expansion, Cataclysm, sold more than 3.3 million copies within its first 24 hours of availability, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time, and went on to sell more than 4.7 million copies in its first month.* World of Warcraft is available in nine different languages -- with a tenth, Brazilian Portuguese, slated for release this year -- and is played in North America, Latin America, Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, mainland China, Korea, Southeast Asia, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
For more information on World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, visit Blizzard Entertainment's official website at www.WorldofWarcraft.com. To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions -- more information on available career opportunities at Blizzard can be found at http://www.blizzard.com/us/jobopp.
*Based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners. Includes digital distribution.
About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft® and the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry's most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment's track record includes thirteen #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company's online-gaming service, Battle.net®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active players.
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Lisa Jensen
VP, Global Public Relations
949-854-6200
949-854-7900 fax
ljensen@blizzard.com
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PR Director
949-955-1380 x13228
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rhilburger@blizzard.com
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Source: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
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My thoughts:
I'll agree on being unsure of the pokemon thing, they really did implement so many specific details that are inherent to the pokemon games
I'm excited about the RP that can be had. A race that can join either faction! /swoon/ The
possibilities.
Discovering the land! How will that happen? RP'ing a class change for a character! Traveling there and being accepted as a monk-in-training!
What if my character is allergic to Panda dander!?!
What if.. /deep breath/ I'm excited. Just in case, it wasn't clear. /pandabow/
Edit: I keep forgetting this board can't handle the less-than/greater-than bracketing.
Kaith Greybarren said: Where did the pandaren idea come from? A downloadable map in WC3. Feel free to correct me on that.
Actually they are from the Warcraft 3 Expansion, The Frozen Throne. When doing the Night Elf Campaign you get one as a Hero.
Some background on pandarens and the man behind it: Samwise Didier talks about Pandaren coming to WoW:
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/21/world-of-warcrafts-samwise-didier-talks-about-finally-bringing/
Otherwise, my only big thought: a lot of people wanting to be monks will not like the class. Myself, I will love it.
Not having auto-attack is a very big deal. This will be a class that demands 100% hands-on time. There's nothing indicating that you will have time to do anything but button mash and make sure you're on queue with all you need to be effective. If you're not active 100% while it's playing, you won't do your role.
The model they're using - and why I will like it - is VERY reminiscient of design from Age of Conan and several other recent MMOs. Attack becomes more action-oriented and healers are encouraged to participate in melee while dealing their healing out. It's a very different paradigm and one that requires a lot of work to make go, but it's rewarding for me.
But a lot of people, it won't work out. This sort of model isn't going to work if you are the sort of person to take a break from queueing up your spells/abilities even for a second. Even in classes like rogue and death knight, you have mandated auto-attack "downtime" while waiting for runes or energy. There's no such thing for monk. I expect to see a lot of people struggle at monk, and a lot of bad monks in queues. Don't jump in unless you're the sort of person to really like this style. As the devs said, this is pretty much Street Fighter for WoW.
Vandrian shall be taking up monk as a "multi" class thing. Fel monk. Think of it as this, Vandrian will pretty much be Akuma, using martial arts for an evil end. :D
Also, I'm in love with the plot they've hinted at so far. Far be it, I don't think we'll see a BIG "downtime" in conflict, just there's no big villain. That's fine by me.
If anything, it seems the Horde and Alliance will be getting a wakeup call in regards to how they're coming to conflict. The Sha - negative manifestations brought about by fighting on Pandaria - seem like they will be a big focus in the overarching plot. As the Horde and Alliance fight more and more, the Sha will be drawn to it, and they may very well end up creating their own new worst nightmare.
This may very well be the character development they've been hinting at for a while for warmongering characters like Garrosh and Varian. You know, the ones we've been bemoaning for being too violent and lunk-headed.
The Mantids also seem Old God related, even with the hints that they aren't hive mind and so forth. They may have been separated from the Old Gods and are now renewing, but we'll just have to wait and see.
I'm not sure what I think of this. It'll be a step up if Blizz decides to stop having one villain after the next just rise up and be all 'I KEEL U N00Bs!'.
I love the idea of how you can -choose- to side with either the Horde or the Alliance, that's very awsome, and I look forward to seeing that in action.
The Pokemon thing really makes me go -_- , though. That's a big ruining factor, for me, personally. But, I'm just judging by what I see. For all I know, it might turn out to be super epic.
This expansion has ups and downs for me, so, I'm interested to see -how- it will go. I'm not going to quit WoW because of it, though. I'll at least give it a chance.
Oh! I'll put this up. After I posted this, I saw this video from Blizzcon. From my point of view, it shows that there will, in fact, be less of a 'massive I keel U villain', and an increase to the war between the Horde and Alliance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbCof1GFJiQ&feature=related
Vandrian Blooddrake said:
This may very well be the character development they've been hinting at for a while for warmongering characters like Garrosh and Varian. You know, the ones we've been bemoaning for being too violent and lunk-headed.
I was at the panel on Publishing, and someone asked if there was going to be a novel on Garrosh and what his thinking and motivation is. Chris Metzen went on record to say the only thing on Garrosh's mind is "KILL KILL KILL!" And if there was a book it would be 240 pages of "KILL KILL KILL!"
This has been my opinion of Garrosh for a long time, so I had Metzen sign my autograph page saying that so I have it in writing. I've hated Garrosh hardcore since the latter events of "The Shattering" novel. And feel a bit happier than I should at being told I'm right. (Long live Thrall!)
The refocusing on the Alliance v. Horde conflict is fantastic. The Wrath of the Lich King plot became convoluted when Blizzard re-introduced the faction war with Wrath Gate, and Cataclysm could never quite balance the Deathwing Kills All storyline and Alliance v. Horde storyline. The end result was a largely absent main villain and scattered faction skirmishes with no final purpose.
By cutting out the balancing act, we'll get a far more focused storyline, an opportunity for current Lore characters to actually grow. That, and Blizzard must be running out of big bads to toss into the raid pit for slaughter, so now there's time to develop a big bad that players will be invested in to kill. Deathwing simply didn't have throngs of fans eager to slaughter him as the Lich King did - not everyone played Warcraft II and understood what he represented. If Blizzard pauses during MoP to develop Garrosh, Varian or Sylvanus and toss them into the deep end of madness, players will line up for the 25-mans to down them for loot.
I'm currently less enthused about the other features of the expansion: Pandaren, Pokemon pet battles, etc. My personal final verdict is still out on these features, and I'll wait till they are developed over the next year before deciding my thoughts on them.