Quick post. This one slipped under my radar.

You know how for a while now I've been saying that Blizzard's Next Gen MMO will have In-Game Advertisements?

Well, I have some proof now to back up that claim: Blizzard's Next-Gen MMO Franchise Development Producer position. Here is one of their primary responsibilities:

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.

In-game advertisements and product placement are planned for the Next-Gen MMO from "major consumer brands." :)

We also know that Titan will have transmedia, and this position will be responsible for the various "Books / Novels, Action figures, Comics, Short movies & Apparel" related to Titan. Marketing like this confirms Cameron Dayton's tweets about having main Heroes and Villains within the game. This ensures that the game is built within a fixed world with memorable and colorful characters. This all gives more credence to the fact that it will be a general MMO (like World of Warcraft) and not a craftable world where users create their own world or adventures (like Second Life).

"You Are Being Prepared" is a good read, and this just further demonstrates how their Next Gen MMO is actually a repeat of the past. :)

Their Next Gen MMO isn't as new as some people might think, and it's a repeat of the past in more ways than one.... more on this later.

Meanwhile, here are some things to keep in mind which I may need to recycle later:

• Product placement of real world things can only function within certain game genres (i.e. modern world, scifi, post-apocalyptic). :)
• Blizzard will never compete with any Activision Blizzard titles. They won't have a competing genre or setting. For example, while Diablo is active, there won't be another Action RPG. A Diablo MMO would compete with WOW. A new Action RPG will be created, though, once Diablo 3 dies down (7-8 years from now.) While SC2 is active, there won't be another RTS. WC4 will come out when SC2 dies, leaving "Starcraft 3" as a non-RTS game. Activision won't create a fantasy MMO while WOW is popular, and Blizzard won't create a COD modern shooter while COD is popular. (Sony learned this lesson the hard way.)
• Blizzard does NOT innovate; they take from others and improve upon it. (Blizzard themselves have even stated that they never innovate.) Think to yourself; who are Activision Blizzard's biggest competitors and what are their biggest video games (that both Activision and Blizzard are currently not competing against)?

Here's a news item from December 3rd regarding the Korean D3 approval. (Thanks Ichigo.)

Based on my rough translation:

• It appears that the GRB had asked Blizzard Korea for private testing of Diablo 3.
• The GRB confirmed with this news site that certain results from December 2nd were completed, and now they're moving onto the deliberation stage. This confirms Blizzard's post when they had said they "were in deliberations." So that post from a couple days ago were indeed because some progress had been made.
• The GRB officer said that generally it takes two weeks for deliberation, but due to the subject matter in Diablo 3, there's "greater resistance" in reviewing this game so it could take a little bit more.
• I think it says the results of the deliberations are expected to be released in January.
• They did confirm, though, that Diablo 3 was/is being held up due to this private testing by the GRB and that Blizzard Korea applied for consideration using the Global version (which includes cash auctions.)

So, apparently some real progress has been made, and it wasn't just a coincidence that Blizzard Korea released that news announcement, and also not a coincidence that Blizzard HQ started posting all of those Diablo and Blizzard Anniversary related news items this week.

(I posted a theory about news release schedules, and how Blizzard uses them to keep players busy with information until the final release. They'll drag out news posts if they need to extend the release date of games for example, which is why they increased the "Day In A Life" posts from 3 to 5 people, and dragged out all of the D3 information. It also explains why there was a sudden explosion of D3 info releases and game related updates within the past week.)

Blizzard is fully expecting it to be approved (probably by January), and it appears that the Korea launch was (and is) indeed holding back the Global release. As long as there are no problems, I'm expecting that Diablo 3 will be a simultaneous global launch.

The only question now, though, is if Blizzard is going to wait for the results of the deliberation before making the release date announcement. They did, after all, say that they were fully expecting it to be approved with no issue. :)

I will be giving away two Path of Exile keys tomorrow. One at 12:00PM PST and the other at 1:00PM PST.

* UPDATE:

First key: FRY46-LLKEM-BLNQL-U____

Characters: M E L G

Will post the second in 1 hour.

* UPDATE:

Sorry, guys - I fucked up. That was the one from yesterday.

Here's the one for today: FRFCM-T2VNH-5WV5H-6PTVT

No puzzle this time, I still have another coming in 30 minutes though.

* UPDATE:

Second key: FRQGV-DSQH4-W3TVL-G____

Characters: 3 X H H

If you win the POE key, you'll also get a friend invite pretty quickly (you need to check back on your pathofexile.com mail account). If you want, just post it back here as a comment and I'll put it up for another contest. Or, just give it to your friend, whatever you want. Your friend's friend invite can be sent back here too so that we can keep cycling through these for our readers. :)