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

Minecraft Steve is PC’s Vice President

Half-Life hero Gordon Freeman will no longer walk alone. Via a campaign spokesperson today, Freeman announced that Minecraft Steve will be his running mate, representing the PC platform in the 2012 Video Game Presidential Election!

The pair stunned supporters by holding a completely silent victory party earlier today, forcing audiences to stand in confused silence before ultimately leaving the venue. "Freeman just stood there, staring at us, and I think he was holding a pipe, or maybe it was a crowbar?" one attendee told IGN. "Then the other guy started building some horse or something from Harry Potter? It was weird, man."

IGN sources reveal that the PC nominating committee suggested Freeman appoint Clippy the Paper Clip to write his campaign speeches, but that Freeman will not be appointing any additional staff. Freeman reportedly refuses to expand his cabinet beyond the number two despite widespread protests and desperate requests for him to add a third.

Freeman’s announcement marks the fourth complete ticket to be revealed, following Commander Shepard’s pick of Marcus Fenix for the Xbox 360 platform, Link picking Fox McCloud for the Nintendo platform and Nathan Drake picking Solid Snake to help represent PlayStation. The final candidate -- multiplatform representative Ezio Auditore da Firenze -- is expected to announce his running mate before the end of the week.

IGN will continue to post updates about election news as it’s announced, so for all of the latest updates, keep checking our ongoing coverage on the 2012 Video Game Presidential Election site!

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

THQ Lays Off 20 Marketing, Production Employees

THQ has let go 20 employees from its marketing and production departments. According to a statement provided to IGN by a THQ spokesperson, “THQ confirms a realignment has taken place in the company’s marketing and production groups in Agoura Hills. This change is reflective of the company’s ongoing strategy to create a more focused, agile, and digitally-oriented organization. Less than 3% of the company’s global workforce was impacted, and no development teams or projects were affected by this action.”

The news first surfaced in a leaked email posted on Twitter by 3D Realms founder George Broussard. In the email, THQ president Jason Rubin writes the following:

"All,

Days like today are not easy for any of us. The worst part of restructuring is clearly the restructuring. But this is a necessary part of improving and rebuilding. It is never easy to see friends and colleagues leave the company. Nobody in management, including me, takes these decisions lightly, but we must all continue to remain focused on driving the business forward and look towards our future.

As you know, it is my vision for THQ to enter into new markets though new distribution methodologies, and reaching those consumers in those markets will take a different approach to marketing. It is also vitally important that we improve our production methodologies and oversight so that we are shipping better titles, on budget and on time.

In our quest to make these changes, I have been looking at the Marketing and Production structure at HQ along with the heads of those departments, Rich Williams and Ron Moravek. We have identified changes that need to be made and thus today we reduced the size of these departments by about 20 individuals.

It is worth pointing out that none of the development teams are effected, and we do not anticipate the reduction to have any impact whatsoever on the titles in production or the future scale of our output. It is also quite likely that in the long run the company will hire new individuals with different skill sets in their stead. To put this in perspective, Volition alone anticipates growing by about 20 individuals in the next 12 months. This represents a shift of resources from oversight to production, and from centralization out to the teams. I would also like to note that these two departments were largely unaffected by the January reduction, so it makes some sense that their size and capabilities do not align with the changes made elsewhere.

I am genuinely excited about both the quality of work and the innovation happening at the company right now. When I look forward to the type of games and digital experiences we will deliver over the next few years, I see a new THQ taking a new market position in a very different industry environment.

Let’s all try to keep our eyes focused on that bright future."

This isn’t the first shake-up at THQ in recent months, following the closure of its Arizona quality assurance facility in July. A full timeline of THQ’s 2012 is available here.

THQ released Darksiders II earlier this week, which IGN gave a 7.5. The company also unveiled the roster for WWE 13, which is set to hit stores in October.

IGN wishes the best of luck to anyone affected by today’s news.

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

Source : ign[dot]com