Blizzard has announced the third expansion pack for its industry leading MMORPG World Of Warcraft.

Unveiled at the company’s fourth BlizzCon event, World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm will introduce new playable races, zones and quests, refresh existing areas of the title and raise the level cap to 85, among other new features.

“In addition to revitalising some of the most familiar and iconic areas of the game world, this third World Of Warcraft expansion will add new features and a large amount of new content for players to explore,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re excited to be offering a first glimpse of Cataclysm for attendees of BlizzCon, and we look forward to sharing more information with everyone as development progresses.”



Having launched in November 2004, World Of Warcraft’s subscriber base topped 11.5 million as of December 2008. The franchise is thought to have accounted for about half of publisher Activision Blizzard's earnings during fiscal 2009, having claimed a reported 58 per cent share of the western subscription-based MMO market.

In July it was revealed that a live action movie based on the World Of Warcraft universe is to be helmed by Spider-Man trilogy and The Evil Dead director Sam Raimi, while last week it was announced that Future had partnered with Blizzard to publish World Of Warcraft: The Magazine, a new quarterly subscription-only title set to debut this fall.

More information about the Cataclysm expansion pack can be found on the World Of Warcraft website.