Massively^™

According to a recent report from the Virtual Worlds 2008 conference, Millions of Us, an advertising agency specializing in the production of marketing campaigns in virtual worlds, is already hard at work developing projects for Sony's Playstation 3-based Home. According to Millions of Us president and co-founder Christian Lassonde, "Certainly I think in the future, console manufacturers will get into user-generated content." We weren't aware that advertising for Pontiac was considered user-generated content these days, but we'll give them a free pass because we're probably taking that quote out of context.

In any case, it may be telling that advertisers are getting early access to Sony's anticipated new virtual world while the would-be customers and fanboys are still waiting outside the gate trying to sneak a peak where we can, in the cold. It may also be raining, it's hard to tell. Home is seeming more and more like a transparently corporate tool for selling us on the next big product and less like the free-wheeling virtual wild west we're used to seeing from this category. We're OK with that, at least for now, just let us play the damn thing already!