Blizzard opens real-money pet store in WoW

Blizzard just opened a huge can of worms -- or of pandas, in this case. The company announced the opening of an in-game pet store in World of Warcraft, wherein players can purchase their own Pandaren Monk or Lil' K.T., the Littlest Lich, for ten bucks. Half of the purchase price of the Monk goes to the Make-a-Wish Foundation until the end of the year, but all of the Lil' K.T. proceeds go to Blizzard's spare Ferrari fund.

Blizzard currently offers for-pay services including realm transfers, race and faction changes, and character appearance edits, but this shop offers the first in-game items for sale -- and these items are exclusive to the Pet Store. While we wouldn't be surprised to see a backlash related to this new offering, we expect it to be the kind of backlash that comprises very public complaining combined with furtive purchases.

[Via WoW.com]