EA Denies Reports of Origin Hack

EA has denied reports that Origin has been hacked. In regard to several users complaining about their accounts being stolen on Origin’s official forums, an EA spokesperson tells IGN “At this point, we have no reason to believe there has been any intrusion into our Origin database.”

Specifically, users are getting emails claiming that their username and password have been changed despite taking no such action. A NeoGAF forum thread features several more complaints from users reporting similar problems.

EA provided the following statement to IGN regarding Origin security measures:

“Anytime a player has a question about the security of his or her account or personal data, we take it very seriously and take all possible steps to help. For any customer who cannot access their Origin account for any reason, we ask them to please contact Origin Help or EA’s customer experience group at help.ea.com. The robust security measures in place to protect Origin users accounts are constantly being expanded and upgraded, and we also strongly recommend customers take the protective steps of using strong passwords and changing passwords often.”

For now, it’s unclear exactly what’s happening to users and whether the password resets are some kind of technical glitch or a hack that EA isn’t aware of. We’ll continue to follow up with EA and will update this story with any additional info we receive.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Star Wars: The Old Republic F2P Restrictions Lessened

Bioware has announced that it will slightly loosen the restrictions facing free-to-play accounts due to "community and internal feedback".

In a post on the game's forums, lead designer Damion Schubert explained that changes would be made to the originally announced restrictions after they generated a mixed reaction.

“

It is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic.

As a result, free-to-play players will now get a second quickslot bar, as well as the ability to run five Warzones each week. Under the original restrictions, there was no second bar for free-to-play accounts and only three Warzone battles could be played every seven days.

Schubert went on to address the worry that the limitations on Warzones will make queues longer, saying that if anything they should get shorter. He explained, "Our subscriber base likely will not shrink much, and for some of our competitors, converting to Free-to-Play has resulted in a subscriber increase! Which means that Warzone queues should likely see improvement from what you experience in game, and at minimum be relatively unchanged in experience.

"That being said, one of our golden rules is that the Free-to-Play experience should not cheapen the experience for paying subscribers. If it turns out that the Free-to-Play conversion results in a degraded Warzone experience once we go live for subscribers, you can rest assured that we will quickly make adjustments to the system to ensure that subscribers have an optimal experience.

"It is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic."

Also addressed in the post is the potential for accounts to receive preferred status. Any former subscriber whose account has locked will automatically get preferred status, otherwise any F2P player who makes a single purchase through the game's official site will also have their account upgraded to preferred status.

Preferred status offers a range of benefits, ranging from increased server queue priority and an extra crew skill slot to obtaining the sprint ability at level 1 alongside access to your cargo hold.

No official launch date has been unveiled for the free-to-play option for Star Wars: The Old Republic, but it's expected to be available before the year is out.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and former SWTOR player. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Star Wars: The Old Republic F2P Restrictions Lessened

Bioware has announced that it will slightly loosen the restrictions facing free-to-play accounts due to "community and internal feedback".

In a post on the game's forums, lead designer Damion Schubert explained that changes would be made to the originally announced restrictions after they generated a mixed reaction.

“

It is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic.

As a result, free-to-play players will now get a second quickslot bar, as well as the ability to run five Warzones each week. Under the original restrictions, there was no second bar for free-to-play accounts and only three Warzone battles could be played every seven days.

Schubert went on to address the worry that the limitations on Warzones will make queues longer, saying that if anything they should get shorter. He explained, "Our subscriber base likely will not shrink much, and for some of our competitors, converting to Free-to-Play has resulted in a subscriber increase! Which means that Warzone queues should likely see improvement from what you experience in game, and at minimum be relatively unchanged in experience.

"That being said, one of our golden rules is that the Free-to-Play experience should not cheapen the experience for paying subscribers. If it turns out that the Free-to-Play conversion results in a degraded Warzone experience once we go live for subscribers, you can rest assured that we will quickly make adjustments to the system to ensure that subscribers have an optimal experience.

"It is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic."

Also addressed in the post is the potential for accounts to receive preferred status. Any former subscriber whose account has locked will automatically get preferred status, otherwise any F2P player who makes a single purchase through the game's official site will also have their account upgraded to preferred status.

Preferred status offers a range of benefits, ranging from increased server queue priority and an extra crew skill slot to obtaining the sprint ability at level 1 alongside access to your cargo hold.

No official launch date has been unveiled for the free-to-play option for Star Wars: The Old Republic, but it's expected to be available before the year is out.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and former SWTOR player. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Runescape Reaches 200 MILLION Registered Users

Runescape has become the first game in history to have over 200 million registered player accounts. That's a LOT of accounts.

A counter has been running on the game's homepage which, when the milestone was reached earlier today, marked the start of 3 days of in-game celebrations.

Speaking about the feat, Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard commented, "When the game was first released, nobody could ever have expected it would reach such high levels of popularity largely by community word of mouth. It has been an incredible journey to get to where we are today, and by continuing our tradition of constantly innovating, evolving   and lovingly crafting RuneScape we are certain to continue to break records by creating an online adventure like no other."

Since its launch in 2001, the free-to-play MMO has enticed 200 million adventurers from more than 150 countries around the world. If RuneScape were a country it would be the 5th largest population in the world, and the game’s players have clocked up in excess of 443 billion minutes of game time so far.

To celebrate this undeniably impressive achievement, Jagex has created an infographic with some mental statistics that you can check out below.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant.  You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com