At Blizzcon 2011, Blizzard Entertainment announced the next expansion for World of Warcraft, entitled "The Mists of Pandaria."
The expansion will add a new continent to the game and reintroduces the Pandaren to the Warcraft universe. The Pandaren, originally set up as an April Fool's joke, were added to Warcraft III and subtly referred to in World of Warcraft. The Pandaren are a race who value "balance, beauty, harmony, and hope," and it is suggested that the Horde-Alliance conflict will invade Pandaria and bring war to its formerly peaceful environment. The addition of the Pandaren will coincide with a new player class called the Monk that focuses on hand-to-hand combat and does not feature an auto-attack mode.
Mists of Pandaria will also feature an increase of the character level cap to 90, a(nother) revision of the talent trees, and new Dungeon challenges and PvE scenarios.
Perhaps the most controversial item of information in The Mists of Pandaria is the announcement of a Pokemon-style Pet Battle System, where players will have the ability to customize their companion pets and even make them battle each other. It's likely that Blizzard will leverage the pet sales it has already conducted to help feed this new game mechanic. Ash Ketchum and Team Rocket were unavailable for comment.
One final item of note is that Blizzard is introducing a WoW Annual Pass, where players will pay for 12 months of WoW and get a free copy of Diablo III and access to the Mists of Pandaria beta.
Here's a brief video to check out the announcement details:
