Next World of Warcraft expansion coming September 25th

Even though it has suffered a drop in popularity over the past year, there is no doubting that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft is still the dominant force in Massively Multiplayer games. New expansions still sell more than most standalone PC games, so the announcement of a new expansion release is big news.

Last night Blizzard made such an announcement, with the currently-in-beta Mists of Pandaria expansion getting a release date of September 25th. There are several ways to purchase a copy, and for the first time Blizzard is doing a digital version of its ever-popular collector’s edition.

The expansion, which requires a WoW account and all the previous expansions, will be available from retail stores for $59.95. There will also be a collectors edition in retail which will sell for $99.95.

For those who want to go digital there are noticeable savings on top of the ability to preload the expansion before official release. The base expansion only costs US $39.95 digitally and the digital deluxe edition (which includes a mount, pet, starcraft II icons and Diablo 3 banner) is selling for US $59.95. There is also the option for those buying the base version to upgrade to deluxe for US $20 later on.

Whether Mists of Pandaria can halt the relatively small but noticeable exodus from World of Warcraft will be fascinating to see. But Blizzard has proven time and time again that it can keep players coming back for more, and dipping their toes back into Azeroth whenever new content arrives.