Black, White And Free All Over: Mists Of Pandaria

Preparations for the Warlords of Draenor expansion to World of Warcraft continues. Yesterday brought The Iron Tide, the traditional pre-expansion patch with all its many changes. Now Blizzard have done the other now-traditional thing and folded the last expansion's content into the base World of Warcraft game. That means subscribers who never bought Mists of Pandaria no longer need to, as its landmass and quests are available to all.

If you've never bought World of Warcraft at all, it means you can get the base game plus all previous expansions - Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm and those aforementioned Pandarens - for $20.

Of course, you'll still need to pay a monthly subscription to reach beyond the first 20 levels included in the free 'starter edition' version of the game, and when the Warlords of Draenor arrive on November 13th, it'll be $50 to access the added content. That is $10 more than previous expansions, with the cost being partly attributed to the pack coming with a 'free' level 90 character. Which is necessary to play that content, and therefore the only way players beyond the existing subscriber base were ever going to buy it. Hmm.

Thanks, PC Gamer.