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*

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".

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.