WoW: Mists of Pandaria will introduce Pokemon-like Pet Battle System

The Blizzard Entertainment developers are walking through the biggest features of the newly announced Mists of Pandaria expansion, and while you can head on over to our sister site at WoW Insider for all of the details, there was one big new feature that we couldn't ignore. Players have been able to collect pets in the World of Warcraft for quite a while now, but a new Pet Battle System will come with the next expansion that allows players to both customize their pets with new names and other items, and even battle each other.

And if you think that sounds a little bit like Pokemon, you're not wrong at all. The battle system, which Blizzard's lead designer Cory Stockton walked through, will have players choosing three pets to fight with at a time, turn-based battles using three abilities per battle (out of six), and even "Master Trainers" which can be beaten around the world of Azeroth to unlock new abilities.

Pets can be obtained in all kinds of different ways, and there will be new "wild pets" that can only be found out in the world (in Goldshire, the devs suggested, while it's raining, during the Spring, only at night). Blizzard has given away special pets during holidays, at events like BlizzCon, and even sold pets for real money on the store. As if World of Warcraft needed to be any more addictive, Blizzard has somehow figured out a way to include their own version of Pokemon inside of it.