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

You Can Now Migrate Your Xbox Live Account

Announced via the official Xbox forums, The Verge has picked up on the fact that Microsoft now allows users to migrate their Xbox Live accounts between regions. This was previously unavailable, meaning that anyone who moved to a new region was forced to connect to their now-foreign region. For instance IGN's own Mitch Dyer moved to the U.S. from Canada, but still has to connect to the Canadian Xbox Live service because that's where he first created his account. Sure, he could up and create a new one, but as many of you know it's easy to get attached to those oh-so-precious achievements and, you know, all the stuff you bought over the years.

The migration comes with some pretty hefty conditions, though. Most notably is the fact that the process can take up to six weeks, during which time your account will be unavailable. Additionally, per the post on the forums:

Some of the services and content that you are currently benefiting from in the country originally registered may not also be available in the country you are willing to migrate to.

All of your current subscriptions, except for Xbox Live Gold if you had any, will be cancelled. You may lose the ability to re-download some, if not all, of the content in your download history.

Any content that you will subsequently download after the account is migrated will be subject to any applicable geofencing rules of your new location.

Will you be taking advantage of this, or is the inability to use your account for a few weeks a deal breaker? It's nice to have an option at all, but the current conditions of it make it far from ideal.

Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on @Chufmoney on Twitter and on at Ant-IGN on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Steam Updates Groups, Enhances Content Management

Valve has announced more new updates to the Steam Community, making changes to group pages as well as how users manager their uploaded content. Valve says that over 2.5 million groups have been created, and their pages will now receive an entirely new layout, adding a group overview, friend showcase and new group discussions.

Discussions can be public or private and users will have “complete moderator control” over their own groups, including the ability to create sub-forums, add moderators and delete posts. Groups can also list their favorite games and a default language can be set.

Valve has also added a new way to keep track of screenshots, replays, videos linked from YouTube, workshop Items and Workshops on your profile page. All content will be available for users to display or manage, with an image wall that will offer multiple ways to view your uploaded screenshots. Players will also be able to favorite screenshots in order to find them later or share them with friends.

Today is the third day of a week’s worth of Community updates that Valve is rolling out this week. The first update came on Monday with the introduction of Game Hubs. For more details about all of the new features, check out the Steam Community’s official site.

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

DayZ Surpasses 900,000 Unique Users

According to the official DayZ website, the insanely popular ArmA II zombie survival mod has continued to be insanely popular. At the time of this post the total number of unique users now numbers 936,156, a rise of over 500,000 since we last covered the game's user base earlier this month.

No doubt part of this comes from the recent Steam Summer Sale, which ArmA II: Combined Operations was predictably a part of. It's no surprise that Combined Operations still sits in the top of the Steam sales charts, currently occupying the number two slot right behind the recently released Orcs Must Die! 2.

At this point it seems inevitable that DayZ will pass 1,000,000 users, but until that happens, why not tide yourself over with our latest preview?

Anthony Gallegos is a part of IGN's PC team. When he's not screaming and running away from the undead he's busily strumming a guitar or losing himself in yet another game of Company of Heroes. You can reach him on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Skyrim Patch 1.7 Arrives on Steam

Skyrim Patch 1.7 is now available for PC users through Steam.

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For those on consoles, the current plan is to submit the update to console manufacturers this week.

In a post on its official blog, Bethesda confirmed the patch is no longer in beta and said that console manufacturers would get the update this week.

The entry reads, "Skyrim’s 1.7 title update is now out of beta and available to all Steam users. Simply load up Skyrim on Steam and you’ll get the update. For those on consoles, the current plan is to submit the update to console manufacturers this week. As soon as it’s available, we’ll let you know."

This isn't the only Skyrim news we're expecting this week, with Bethesda's Pete Hines also having suggested that we'll find out when, if at all, PC and PS3 players will get their hands on the Dawnguard expansion DLC.

We previously covered what awaits players in Patch 1.7, with PS3 players finally getting Patch 1.6's mounted combat when it arrives.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. He knew he made a mistake buying Skyrim for PS3. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com