Mists of Pandaria hits live servers within a couple of days, so now it would be appropriate to have a look at the precise release dates, box art and also the changes being done to the Battle Chest.

Mists of Pandaria Launch Dates

The official Mists of Pandaria launch times are as follows:

North and Latin American realms: 12:00 a.m. PDT, September 25

European realms: 12:00 a.m. CEST, September 25

Korean/Taiwan realms: 12:00 a.m. KST, September 27

With this expansion we're using a new bit of tech that will unlock the expansion content, make the intro quest magically pop up in your quest log, and allow you to begin playing the expansion IMMEDIATELY without the need to log out and back in. If everything goes as planned this will be a smooth transition to the adventures that await you in the new continent.

This is Blizzard's comment regarding the transition. I really like the "if everything goes as expected" part. Diablo III & Cataclysm launches were horrendous.

Mists of Pandaria Box Art

Here you'll see a couple of images of the new box art of both, the collector's edition and the standard version.

Note that you can upgrade to digital deluxe version, without the need of going to a local gamestore, for the first time ever.

Mists of Pandaria Collector's Edition on the left, regular on the right.

Here's another close-up at the Collector's Edition (click on the image to expand)

Free Wrath of the Lich King Upgrade

It would be ridiculous to buy two expansion in order to play Mists of Pandaria, so now, all Burning Crusade accounts have been upgraded to Wrath of the Lich King. The World of Warcraft Battle Chest now includes Classic, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King, all for $20. You can purchase all of World of Warcraft up to Mists of Pandaria for $60 now as well.