Incoming cuteness alert.
Incoming cuteness alert.
You have been warned!
Blizzard has released an official preview for the soon-to-be-released Guardian Cub. Why the special attention for a pet that's going to be just another PetStore item? Well it's going to be the first of its kind; a tradable PetStore item!
According to Blizzard, due to the desire by players for optional ways of acquiring PetStore companions, the Guardian Cub will be tradable by players in-game (after a cool-down period, likely one hour). Players can also put the pet item up for sale on the Auction House after purchasing it from the PetStore ($10 USD).
What does this mean? Unlike previous PetStore companions that once purchased, could be applied to all characters on a particular server, the Guardian Cub may only be added to one collection per item.
Also, unlike previous PetStore companions that may only be purchased using real life currency, the Guardian Cub item can be purchased using in-game gold or simply traded between characters.
Keep in mind that once added to a collection, the cub's item will disappear from your inventory. You won't be able to mail the item back and forth between characters, but you can hold multiple versions of the item itself in one inventory.
So if you have multiple toons you'd like to give this bundle of cuteness to, you're going to have to buy multiple Guardian Cubs, one for each character. The upside, though, is that you can choose to spend either real life money or gold to acquire the cubs.
These unique features will be exclusive for the Guardian Cub. All previously released PetStore pets will remain unchanged (for now). It's unknown whether or not Blizzard will add future pets with similar usage features as the Guardian Cub. I guess we can consider the cub the "guinea pig" and where Blizzard goes from here will be based on their studies and findings around the sale and usage of the Guardian Cub.
The official sneak peek has a full FAQ and more detailed information on the how and the why, but not so much on the when. "Soon" and in a few weeks is the best guess. :P
Personally, I'm extremely excited to finally hear more about the Guardian Cub. I haven't created a firm opinion on the idea of a tradable PetStore pet yet. Much like Blizzard, I'm waiting to see the outcome of this change.
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I'm honestly sort of on the fence with this one. The pet is absolutely adorable- but I'm bummed it's not BoA like the others. Aside from the money issue... the mount is BoA, and now every character I have can't have a lil' baby to fly next to it without spending a lot! (be it in game or out) Of course, I still don't have the mount either... but it's been on my 'to get' list for awhile. Time will tell of course- but I wish they'd give the option of a BoA version or a one time use tradeable version.
ReplyDelete@Saberella: I'm on the fence about the Guardian Cub too. I can understand why Blizzard's taking this route, but at the same time the single-use change for the price that they're charging... I can definitely empathize with the community's strong objection to this.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to give it more thought.