Product placement lined-up for Blizzard’s next big thing

In game product placement might be lined up for Project Titan, Blizzard’s MMO follow-up to World of Warcraft.

 

That is, if a job recruitment ad recently posted by the developers of Starcraft and Diablo is to be believed.

Blizzard is looking for a “highly organised individual” with the responsibility to “Work with major consumer brands to facilitate product placement and licensing within the world of Blizzard Entertainment's next-gen MMO that enhances the gameplay experience.”

We don’t know what product placement within Project Titan would entail, but we’re not too keen to see the latest Puma, Coke or Tag Heuer merchandise thrown into our MMO fare. Hey Blizzard, here’s an idea – how about product placement (and in-game purchasing) of products created by the community themselves?

 

Project Titan is Blizzard’s new “casual” MMO, with CEO Mike Morhaime saying at BlizzCon 2010 that, “We're thinking of it as sort of a next-generation MMO. It's not a sequel to World of Warcraft – we want to do something a bit different.”

 

George Hotz back on attack?

Hacker extraordinaire George Hotz seems to have taken the straight and narrow after going to work for Facebook in June last year. But now it would appear that he’s back at doing what he does best – hacking. This according to Business Insider, who ran into Hotz at a recently held hackathon held by a start-up called Backplane.

Sony famously sued Hotz, also known under the tag GeoHot, accusing him of violating federal laws by posting information on the PS3 console's security software online. This software, better known as a 'rootkey', enables hackers to trick the PS3 into playing pirated software while thinking it's legitimate. 

 

 

Blizzcon 2012 a no-go

Apart from their search for a franchise development expert, Blizzard Entertainment has also announced the sad news that there will be no Blizzcon this year. Blizzcon is an annual convention bringing together fans and developers of the major Blizzard franchises.

In a recent posting on Battle.net regarding the 2012 Battle.net World Championship being held in Asia, the company dropped in this little gem: “In light of our jam-packed schedule, we’ve decided to hold the next BlizzCon in 2013.”

To be honest we can’t be bothered about no BlizzCon in 2012 – as long as we get Diablo III we’ll be satisfied.

Aliens: Colonial Marines delayed

A worrying piece of news is that the anticipated Aliens: Colonial Marines title has apparently been pushed back by publisher Sega to a vague “spring 2012” (in the southern hemisphere) time period.

The game was previously scheduled to be released this March. According to a statement posted on the Gearbox Software forums, the official explanation is as follows:

“Aliens: Colonial Marines is a process of creativity and invention and those don't necessarily follow the structure of an assembly line. While setting clear goals, deadlines and predictions is helpful, they are often subjective. We don't want to sacrifice the creative process just for the sake of following a blueprint. We prefer to have the creative discovery shape that blue print because our goal is to make a great game, and we are prioritizing this goal over the previously targeted date.”

Our guess is that if the Colonial Marines title falls off the 2012 schedule altogether, Sega and the developers, Gearbox Software, will certainly hear Aliens fans scream, especially since Prometheus is set to transport Aliens loving fans back to a similar universe towards the middle of the year.  

If you’re not convinced yet that you should care, hit the video below.