Jimothy, the short-spined raccoon who has captured the hearts of the internet, is coming to World of Warcraft.
Over the past few weeks, Jimothy the raccoon has gone absolutely viral, as Seattle locals share images and videos of the animal celebrity going about his daily life. He’s hard to miss, as his unique spinal condition gives him a noticeably shortened torso and neck that makes him look like a goblin in raccoon form.
Naturally, as Jimothy’s popularity skyrocketed, so too did the brands begin to take notice, World of Warcraft included. Blizzard was quick to post a mock-up showing what Jimothy might look like in WoW, and the response was “overwhelming,” according to Blizzard. Players desperately wanted Jimothy to be a real in-game companion. Now, that’s becoming a reality.
Blizzard has now announced it managed to “squeeze in” a functional version of the real-life cryptid as part of the MMO’s upcoming 12.1 Curse of Ula’tek update. Jimothy will be an earnable pet companion players can acquire in-game, though Blizzard hasn’t yet detailed what players will need to do to call Jimothy their own.
“Currently, Jimothy is being tested for visual and functional effects and is targeted to go live when Curse of Ula’tek launches,” Blizzard said. “As always with in-development content, that may shift, but the team is excited to share their own version with the intention of making him an earnable companion pet for the community.”
That’s great timing, because patch 12.1 is the same patch that will see Blizzard add the ability for players to place pets from their collection in their virtual homes. By placing down a pet bed decor item, players can then assign a pet to that pet, with the system allowing for up to 10 pets inside and five pets outside. Indoor pets can be set to remain stationary or allowed to roam, while outdoor pets can only be set to stationary.
While most pets will work with this new system, there are a few that can’t. It seems safe to assume Jimothy will work with housing, though Blizzard has not explicitly confirmed it.
WoW’s Curse of Ula’tek update still doesn’t have an exact release date, but it’s expected to be in the next few weeks. In addition to Jimothy, the update will introduce a whole host of new content, including a new zone, raid, dungeon, and delves. It will also add new housing features like blueprints as well as Discord and guild chat integration, and improvements to the game’s ping system and cooldown manager. If a recent datamine is to be believed, the epilogue for the update may even reveal villain Xal’atath’s true plans.