Definitely upping the ante for the in-game content providing firm, Double Fusion is now upgrading their senior levels with game industry marketing veterans from all fronts: consoles, PCs and even MMOs. Still pending as to which company this dynamic ad content provider will be merging with, as least now they have Directors worth the company's reputation.

 

According to an official press release, Euro-based Double Fusion has appointed Daniel Best, Europe">David Miller and Itzik Ben Bassat to positions in the senior European management team. Daniel Best, former Online Commercial Manager of The Independent, is now the Sales Director for the European front.

As former Director of Brand Marketing for SEGA Europe, David Miller will now be heading the Director position of Business Development and Marketing in Europe. He has also worked for Capcom, Electronic Arts and Virgin. But perhaps most out-worldly of appointments was Itzik Ben Bassat, who is best known for being a part of Vivendi's image upgrade of Blizzard Entertainment.

Surprisingly, Ben Bassat was considered "the architect" behind World of Warcraft's success internationally, and also responsible for upgrading Big Blue from a simple games development studio to a company focused on online entertainment. If you wanted someone to blame for the lack of focus on Starcraft 2 and Starcraft: Ghost, now you've got a name.

It looks like the titles that Double Fusion touches are sure to sport lots of in-game ads for sure. This news is almost enough to make us wonder, how would PlayStation Home look if Double Fusion got the "go signal" from Sony? Downtown Tokyo? *shudder*

 

Everyone knows that farming and selling online currency for real money does happen. Now is it justifiable? Those who play  Blizzard's World of Warcraft are polarized when it comes to this rather controversial question.

The demand for in-game currency has become so huge that companies have started farming and selling their gold online. At almost US$ 1 per gold, the price can be pretty high, so why do people buy gold? A gold farmer working for Ucdao.com has said that a lot of the white-collar workers would rather do it themselves, unfortunately time constraints prevent them from doing so.

From the players viewpoint, their answers did not differ much from the given answer by the gold farmer. A player said that he does not want to grind (a term used for those who would kill monsters over and over again for either money or experience points) since he has better things to do.

While some would think that it is ok to participate in this, the creators of the game do not. Itzik Ben Bassat, Blizzard VP Business Development and International, spoke on this and relayed the actions Blizzard has done regarding this issue: "It's like in the real world - in the real world there are people that try to cheat and last month alone we banned 100,000 accounts for illegal gold trading or cheating in the game, and it's very important for us to keep a fair gaming environment"

Now, this is a very sensitive matter and a lot of people believe that this is a very gray area in terms of the legality of selling gold for real currency. Both sides have brought up valid points and have been going at it for quite some time now; however, there are no signs of the gold farming stopping any time soon.

Nvidia's VP of content, Roy Taylor, said in an interview that good graphics are the keys to good gameplay. And for now, the best gaming machine that could churn out stunning graphics is arguably, the PC. But Blizzard's Itzik Ben Bassat said in a recent interview that "consoles are becoming sophisticated PCs which sit in the living room."

He also speculates that because of the development of the consoles, "maybe in five years you won't need a it (console) because you'll have one PC which delivers content all over your house."

He mentions that they are keeping a close eye on Sony and Microsoft, especially on the online capabilities of the PS3 and the Xbox 360. He also confirmed that Blizzard have no plans of bringing World of Warcraft to consoles. When asked about what he has to say about online console gaming, he said:

Online console gaming is still in its very early stages, and it needs to be developed further to provide opportunities of a scale which will be interesting to us. So when we come to develop a new game we will look at the kind of opportunities that exist out there and what we want to develop, and if it could be interesting on console. We should remember that a 360 is just a sophisticated PC.

The Blizzard honcho also divulged that he has not seen enough of the PS3's online service so he couldn't give his take on it. On the other hand, he has nothing but praises for the Xbox 360's XBLA. He believes that the MS folks have done an excellent job in developing it and that there are "lots of exciting things there".

This is definitely Blizzard's week on the spotlight as The Burning Crusade continues to disappear from shelves faster than you can say, "Hotcakes." WoW has wowed the world over with gamers' warm reception of TBC and we all want to know what their secret is. Itzik Ben Bassat, Vice President of Development at Blizzard gave some insight in an interview with Empire Online.

According to him, the thing that makes WoW last (as it has been online for two years) is its playability, since nearly every guy and his brother can play it. Fantasy is always appealing, as the masses are basically always drawn to anything fantasy-based (read: Harry Potter and LotRO). WoW's popularity has reached beyond the gaming world and crossed over to having a card game, a clothing line, plus an episode of South Park.

WoW has an estimated player count of eight million. Just how many girls do they think play? WoW has made itself playable for girls when the female species are stereotyped as gaming inept. Anyway, it has attracted gamers of all shapes and sizes since the game is role playing, social, and competitive - all rolled into one. It fuels everybody's needs.

The World of Warcraft movie is currently in the works (along with Blizzard's new MMO), with Legendary Pictures, makers of Superman Returns and Batman Begins. So far, all we've had was Fanatik's film so we'll be crossing our fingers and praying at night for that WoW movie.

During the recently held London launch of The Burning Crusade (which was flooded by undead-looking people, if I might add), Blizzard's VP of development Itzik Ben Bassat issued some statements regarding the company's plans after WoW:BC.

Given the HUGE success of WoW (more than 8 million users, baby!), a lot of people are speculating that the company may pattern their next titles after WoW. But during the launch, Bassat hinted that their next MMORPG won't just be a clone of their worldwide hit title.

When asked about this by British magazine Empire, Bassat said,

When we announce our next MMORPG it's not going to be another WOW - we're not a company that tends to tread the same ground. It'll be something innovative and new that really brings entertainment to another level.

And as for the rumored World of Warcraft film, Bassat commented:

Bringing Warcraft to the movies is the next step for us, we want to let people bring World of Warcraft into other aspects of their lives. After all, we're competing for people's entertainment time, whether it's listening to music, watching TV, or going to the cinema.

While none of these don't really reveal a lot about their upcoming title, maybe the fact that the company started hiring real-time strategy developers last summer hints at something, eh? We'll keep you posted!

The Burning Crusade's midnight launch at Oxford Street was a success, considering that Blizzard was a bit concerned over it's first launch outing in the UK. An estimated 3,000 people lined up outside HMV's Oxford Street to get their copies of the coveted expansion.

Some have reportedly been on the queue since 5:40 a.m. A few gamers dressed up for the occasion and were given special passes for the Collector's Edition and a free Murlock pet for their trouble.

Itzik Ben Bassat, Blizzard's VP for business development expressed his surprise at the UK launch's success. He gave gamers something else to look forward to as he hinted:

"We'd like to say to our fans of Diablo and Starcraft that we haven't forgotten we have these franchises. We cannot wait to be here in a few years, or however long it will be. It won't be a decade, and we'll be celebrating the launch of [the next] Starcraft together."

Hold on to your hats, the next thing we maybe exploring is just around that Warp Gate. As for now we'll have to content ourselves with entering that Dark Portal.

Pro-G was at the HMV Oxford Burning Crusade launch party, and they heard Blizzard VP Business Development and International Itzik Ben Bassat say the following. You know what? Let's make that "Pro-G swears by all that is holy they heard Blizzard VP Bassat say the following":

I'm a StarCraft player myself and I hope it's not a decade, and we launched StarCraft in 1998, before I'm standing here again, celebrating the next game in the series.

Kerrigan's ghost, Bassat! (Whoa, a pun. Kerrigan's ghost... Kerrigan WAS a Ghost... hehe) If there's a way to start a riot among the gamers of the late 90's, that's one way. Kaplan and LeCraft both have been dropping hints about an under-wraps Blizzard project, and historically speaking, a sequel, spin-off, or continuation of the seminal RTS game of the late '90s was more under-wraps than most. And if you think the heat for a StarCraft-Next has died down, remember that 3D vid you saw before? That's from Snowflake Entertainment, buncha fans working on remaking StarCraft using the Warcraft III engine.

You know how it is with the tease, right? They show you a little, just enough to get you interested, then pull the covers back on, leaving you wanting more, begging for more (anyone who's dated before will know what this writer's talking about). Because that's all Bassat said, no one on Earth, except probably for Blizzard, knows whether he meant the still-vapor StarCraft Ghost (potential next-gen console title?), or a future 3D RTS sequel to StarCraft (which would definitely be, or at least begin, on the PC). Or even a StarCraft MMO?

We can make a very accurate prediction, though. Have you ever seen a Zergling rush tear an entire base apart like rabid termites? That's what StarCraft fans will do to game stores everywhere when a StarCraft-Next is launched. You can bet I'll be one of them.