Blizzard register 'Mist of Pandaria' trademark

03 Aug 2011 at 13:22:02 by John Robertson

Fourth expansion to include the panda-people?

A new Blizzard trademark has been approved today for "Mists of Pandaria". Could it perhaps represent the title for the fourth entry into the World of Warcraft expansion train? 

Back in 2009 Blizzard revealed Cataclysm to the masses at BlizzCon, having filed the trademark a few months before the event. The 'Mists of Pandaria' trademark appears not to be a book (as some have suggested) with the filing covering 'computer game software; computer game discs; and downloadable computer game software'.

Pandaria is an area of Azeroth that plays home to the Pandaren, a race of humanoid panda's that began their Warcraft lives as an April Fool's joke for Warcraft III. Eventually, after an overwhelmingly positive fan response, they were added to that game via an expansion and written into the world's lore.

It was rumoured that the Pandaren would turn up as a playable race in WOW's 'Burning Crusade' expansion, but it never happened. Supposedly, Blizzard opted for the Draenei race instead to avoid Chinese laws protecting the depictions of the panda. China, of course, is one of WOW's most important territories. 

The fourth WOW expansion is rumoured to be released Q2 of 2012.

So many rumours...

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