14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer Blizzard has confirmed that the recently launched big 4.3 update for the Cataclysm expansion for the MMO World of Warcraft is the last big addition to the game before the launch of the next expansion, called Mists of Pandaria.
Dave Kosak, who is a lead quest designer working on World of Warcraft, told Videogamer that, “4.3 is definitely the climax of Cataclysm, so there’s no more Cataclysm content.”
He added, “Traditionally we’ve had a grace period where we patch the game before the expansion comes out and you get sort of mechanical changes before you get the new expansion content. So we’ll have a world event prior to Mists of Pandaria, but that’s mostly a part of Mists of Pandaria’s launch and it’s not really more Cataclysm content.”
Update 4.3, named Hour of Twilight, has made a number of changes to the gameplay of the MMO and has also added some quests and raids for high level players to enjoy.
Blizzard will presumably continue to work on the bugs and the issues that players find while playing the MMO and will launch small patches to fix them.
Mists of Pandaria has been unveiled during the Blizzcon event in October 2011 and will introduce the first neutral race in the history of World of Warcraft, the Pandaren, who will have their own introduction zone and will then be able to choose which faction to fight for.
The expansion will introduce another full continent for gamers to explore and will make significant changes to all the classes while introducing a new one.
Blizzard has not said when Mists of Pandaria will be released but a leak older release schedule suggested that it would arrive in the fall of 2012.
This year Blizzard is also set to launch the action role playing game Diablo III and the Heart of the Swarm expansion for Starcraft II.