Blizzard Opens Pet Store for World of Warcraft

Over on the official World of Warcraft forums Blizzard officially launched a new section in its online store for buying in-game pets. Two new pets accompany the grand opening. The Pandaren Monk (pictured below on left) sporting a handy hip flask bows in return to any player gracious enough to bow to him. You can also feel good about your purchase because Blizzard will donate half the proceeds from every Pandaren Monk purchased to the Make-a-Wish foundation through December 31, 2009.

The other new pet, Lil' K.T. (pictured above on right), doesn't make a charitable donation, but then I suppose that would be out of character for a mini-lich. His description sounds a little more active, though, freezing the little critters that scurry about and mocking PvP foes you take down.

In the official pet store faq Blizzard explains that they created this new service based on customer request. At $10 a piece, at least for these first two pets, there's certainly ample financial motivation as well. They also confirmed that more pets will be available in the near future. Knowing how excited players have gotten about previous special pets it's easy to see this becoming the new Pokemon -- Gotta' Catch Buy 'Em All!