No expansion pack needed to play Pandaren race in World of Warcraft

The latest expansion pack of the massively popular World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria, is going to come out soon. One of the major features of the new expansion pack is the inclusion of the Pandaren as a playable race. Recently, Blizz has announced in a blog post that the Pandarens will be playable by everyone.

Usually, if an expansion pack for the massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) has a new race, players would need to buy the expansion pack to be able to play the new race. Previously, these races included the Draenei, the Blood Elves, the Worgen and the Goblins. Blizzard has said that it will unlock all the races to be able to be played by anyone without them having to buy the expansion packs.

According to the blog post, “With the release of patch 5.0.4, we’re making all the races of Azeroth playable by anyone, no matter which version or expansion of World of Warcraft they own. This includes the enigmatic pandaren, who will become available for play when Mists of Pandaria is released on Tuesday, September 25. We want the entire World of Warcraft community to be able to embrace their inner goblin, blood elf, worgen, draenei, or pandaren from the moment they step foot into the world of Azeroth.”

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Anyone can be a pandaran!

Once the expansion pack is out, players belonging to both the Alliance and the Horde will be able to visit and explore the long-lost continent of Pandaria and see the mysteries the continent hides.
 
Mists of Pandaria will be available on DVD-ROM for Windows XP/ Vista/ 7 and Mac at the price of $39.99. Those interested can also buy the game from World of Warcraft’s website for the same price, or £29.99 for access to the European client.
 
A Collector’s Edition packed with bonus goodies will be available only in retail stores for a price of £59.99. A Digital Deluxe version of the expansion pack that contains the in-game goodies from the Collector’s Edition will be available to buy on the website for the first time. The Digital Deluxe version is available for $59.99 for the North American client and £39.99 for the European client. Those who buy the standard edition digitally or at retail will have the option to upgrade to the Digital Deluxe version for an additional fee of £10.
 
Presales for the Mists of Pandaria expansion pack are now live for both the standard and the Digital Deluxe editions. The expansion pack’s content will automatically be downloaded to pre-purchasers through the World of Warcraft launcher before the release of MIsts of Pandaria.

CEO and co-founder of Blizzard, Mike Morhaime said, “Mists of Pandaria contains the biggest variety of new content we’ve ever created for a World of Warcraft expansion, with features that will appeal to new players, veterans, and everyone in between. We’ve received a lot of great feedback from players during our most extensive beta test yet, and we hope they enjoy exploring everything Pandaria has to offer when the expansion comes out in September.”