This is the other major bit news out of Blizzcon.

Diablo III is offered free!*

*If you subscribe to World of Warcraft for 12 months.

If you had an active or inactive subscription on the 18th October 2011. New accounts can’t get it. More details on the deal are here.

Beta access to Mists of Pandaria is also part of the deal.

Oh you get a free World of Warcraft in-game mount too : Tyrael’s Charger

I view this as a smart move from Blizzard. It looks generous and it holds up flagging World of Warcraft subscriber numbers.

But it’s not so generous as it might appear.

Blizzard can clawback any ‘losses’ via the long 12-month subscription and the extra pressure get the World of Warcraft Mist of Pandaria expansion, since you’re paying for the subscription anyway. There will also be opportunity for making money from purchases of Diablo III expansions and other merchandise (digital or otherwise). This will also increase Blizzard’s profits made via the real money auction house in Diablo III.

Still it’s a deal which will appeal to many especially those already committed to World of Warcraft.

Blizzcon is on and there’s basically two bits of important news.

The first is the new expansion with a new Chinese styled continent. Now this might be a smart move but from here it all falls apart into a dreadful series of cringes.

The continent is called Pandaria. Oh-kaaaay. To fit the new race, the…. Panderan… and a new class the.. uhm Monk. Groan. Yes this is Kung Fu Panda cloned to hell. One waits to see if there is a commercial agreement or a pile of litigation coming.

There’s a 5 level increase to level 90 and new content including a vanity pet battle system and challenge modes. They want to renew Horde vs Alliance but I rather suspect they will shake it up instead. The expansion is titled Mists of Pandaria and 5 year olds will probably love it.

You’ll be forgiven if you think this video is a joke or hoax at first, I certainly did.