Last November, Valve revealed that hackers gained access to sensitive Steam user information, including user names, billing addresses, and encrypted credit card information. Via a message from company founder Gabe Newell, the Valve informed users of the security breach but added, "We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked."

Nearly three months later Valve is still attempting to assess the damage, which, according to a second message from Newell received by Steam Users today, was more extensive than originally thought. "Recently we learned that it is probable that the intruders obtained a copy of a backup file with information about Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008. This backup file contained user names, email addresses, encrypted billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. It did not include Steam passwords." writes Newell.

As if the creator of Minecraft funding a dream project from a veteran game designer was not crazy and exciting enough of an idea, Double Fine may have just topped it. One day after Markus "Notch" Persson proposed Mojang help to make Psychonauts 2 a reality, the developer of Psychonauts is turning to fans to bankroll a new, old-school adventure game.

Using Kickstarter, a fundraising platform that has been employed by independent game developers and documentarians alike, Double Fine is looking to raise $400,000. $300,000 of that will be used to fund the PC game's development, while the other $100,000 will be used to document the entire development process. 2 Player Productions, the same group that produced a documentary on the early development of Minecraft at Mojang, has already been tapped to create the documentary, which will be made available in monthly installments for those who back the project. Any money raised beyond the $400,000 will be used to pay for things like extra voiceover work or bringing the game to additional platforms like Mac and iOS.

When I need to shut off my brain, I turn to reality TV, specifically any show that revolves around finding hidden treasures in piles of junk -- basically everything on A&E at this point. The producers of these shows coach their casts into childish conflicts for the sake of drama, but the merchandise is the real star. Every now and then someone discovers something incredible -- a first edition of The Old Man and the Sea, original sketches by Picasso, ancient artifacts -- items of real historical value. The men and women of these shows take their newly found treasure and sell it to the highest bidder, and no one objects, but what would happen if they found a historically valuable game -- like an unreleased Resident Evil title for the Game Boy Color.

Video game fans long ago reconciled themselves to the fact that they would never be able to play hundreds of different historically significant games on their original systems -- especially those that came close but never saw retail shelves. Over time, a small community grew around tracking down prototypes and unreleased titles. These lost games would otherwise sit in storage until magnetic and optical data degradation rendered them unplayable, destroying a piece of video game history in the process. There are only so many Stadium Events cartridges out there, and original Akalabeth floppies probably died long ago, effectively making emulation the only way to play these and many other classic titles. This emulation can be legitimate and endorsed by rights holders -- think of the virtual console and countless retro collections released on modern console -- or done through third party emulators and illegally downloaded files and ROMs. Since many of these important games never received a proper release and publishers are often selective about what titles they make available, the latter option won out amongst the small lost games community, which needed to cooperate and focus their efforts in order to uncover new finds.

The final of three games Microsoft announced in 2010 as a demonstration of its support for PC gaming, Microsoft Flight, finally comes out later this month. Several pieces of downloadable content are releasing along with it, though they are priced in a way that could make it hard to interest those who are not hardcore fans.

Many gamers take issue with downloadable content being made available right at a game's launch. In the case of a free-to-play game like Flight, launching on February 29, it's a different situation as the game itself is being given away for free and Microsoft hopes it's good enough that gamers decide to spend money on new locales, planes, and so on.

While everyone on the internet is busy running Madden simulations to predict the Super Bowl we thought we'd take a different approach. In order to determine the winner between the Patriots and the Giants, we're taking Skyrim's home-grown patriots, the Stormcloaks, and pitting them against the country's giants.

I love Half-Life, but somewhere around E3 2010 I resigned myself to the fact that Half-Life 3 won't see the light of day anytime soon. Steam, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Dota 2, Counter-Strike, as well as some projects we've probably never heard of seem to keep Valve busy (and rich) enough for the time being. Not all fans are so patient. A Steam group named, A Call for Communication (CFC), is hosting an event called "A Red Letter Day" and asking players around the world to play Half-Life 2 this weekend at 2:00 P.M. Eastern, 11 P.M. Pacific, with the hope that Valve will take notice and begin to share more information about the future of the series.

Years of listening to forum-posters demand things of game makers with a remarkable sense of entitlement and lack of shame has led me to expect little constructive work to come fans, but CFC's positive tone and earnest message managed to shake me of my cynical world view (if only for a few moments). The group even goes out of their way to encourage positive interaction between Valve and fans on their official site:

"The lack of communication between Valve and the Half-Life community has been a frustrating experience. While continued support for current and future products is greatly appreciated, fans of the Half-Life series have waited years for a word on when the franchise will return. So, Instead of focusing efforts in a negative and disrespectful way, we have decided to gain Valve's attention by delivering a basic message:

This week was not kind to video game publishers. THQ announced plans for 240 lay-offs amidst the board of directors and CEO giving themselves a 50% paycut. Meanwhile, Disney bought a controlling stake in India-based UTV Ignition -- a publisher which went through its own set of lay-offs and restructuring last year -- for an undisclosed sum after the Indian government approved the deal which had reportedly been in the works since at least last summer. Disney plans to use the firm to expand their own presence in the Asian market. Neither company revealed how the changes would impact Ignition's gaming division. It's entirely possible that it will have little or no effect, but that seems unlikely given the troubles the company endured last year. THQ ran into financial trouble after relying on licensed properties and kids and family titles, specifically uDraw, whereas Ignition announced they would shift their focus to downloadable titles last year after a series of poorly performing games.

These two publishers are hardly the only ones publicly struggling. Various factors, including high-cost HD development, have led to a shakeout amongst small and medium sized publishers like Eidos, Gamecock, Midway, and others while Activision rakes in massive profits. Of course, this is normal, companies that fail to adapt die. However, THQ's and Ignitions's recent troubles stem from a disturbing trend in game consumers, not from development or publishing difficulties. It seems that players are spending more time playing games, but paradoxically spending that extra time with fewer titles. Game makers have never in the forty-year history of the medium had such a massive consumer base to sell to, but players have never been so unwilling to try new experiences.

PC gamers have become accustomed to being treated less than ideally as a result of DRM schemes like those which force you to have an active Internet connection to play or only provide you with a limited number of installations before having to ask for more. Next week gamers will get a taste of what it's like to be treated even worse when Ubisoft migrates its online services to new servers.

As outlined on the publisher's website, the process will begin on February 7. There's no estimate given for how long this will take which is problematic because not only will Uplay be unavailable, but a handful of PC and Mac games will also be impacted. That impact goes beyond online multiplayer; a number of games will not be playable online or offline for the duration of the transition. You didn't read that wrong: you will not be able to play a game you own offline because of a server transition.

For all of its bugs, glitches, and issues, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is still a remarkable game. As I'm sure was the case for many other gamers, the promise of eventual mod support was in and of itself enough reason for me to purchase the game on PC. Expansive mods are no longer all that far off as support is in place for the Skyrim Workshop now that the 1.4 update is available through Steam.

As demonstrated in the video above, Bethesda will soon be releasing the Creation Kit (mod-making software comprised of the same tools used to make the game) to the masses, enabling those who are so inclined to begin creating new content for what is already a content-rich game. Mods do exist for Skyrim but they are largely limited to things like UI refinements, improved world maps, enhanced textures, and so on. The Creation Kit should allow for a great deal more than that.

As if EverQuest dropping subscriptions wasn't enough of a sign that the subscription-based MMO business model will eventually be replaced by free-to-play, Trion Worlds has announced it will begin allowing players to experience a good chunk of Rift's early game content for free.

It's an identical move to the one Blizzard made last summer in the face of declining World of Warcraft subscription numbers. Coinciding with the release of the 1.7 update, a version of Rift known as Rift Lite is debuting today. By signing up for a free Trion account, you will be able to play up to level 20 without any restrictions on how long you can play for. Previously the trial available would only allow for seven days of play time before requiring the game be purchased in order to continue. That was a more significant free period than WoW's (which allowed you to play for only 48 hours), though removing the time limit altogether is a smarter approach.

Although it was hardly the first time it had been accused of copying an existing game, accusations that Zynga had cribbed the design of Tiny Tower struck a more sensitive nerve than usual. Maybe that's because Tiny Tower is more beloved and well-known than, say, a game like Farm Town, which seems to have had a pretty clear influence on FarmVille. As expected Zynga has denied the allegations and even suggested those complaining about their games being copied are not as innocent as they would have you believe, though it still remains to be seen where Zynga has innovated on the Tiny Tower formula.

Following in the footsteps of Tiny Tower developer NimbleBit, Buffalo Studios released an infographic contrasting the recently-revealed Zynga Bingo with its own Bingo Blitz game. There are certainly similarities, though Zynga posits the reason its game resembles Buffalo's is not because Zynga copied the competition.

Sony Online Entertainment announced today that the original Everquest would make the transition to a free-to-play system in March. Released in 1999, EQ was far from the first MMO, but the industry followed its model. It's hard to imagine World of Warcraft finding success without SOE's game preceding it. The game's transition marks the end of an era -- it's the death knell for MMOs as we've known them.

Everquest's relatively small player base means the shift to free-to-play is more a sign of the times than an agent change in and of itself. Several high profile MMOs --including Everquest 2 -- have gone free-to-play past several months, but the original EQ isn't just another entry into the genre. It proved to the world that MMOs could become wildly profitable, and set off a game development gold rush that gave us everything from WoW to Star Wars: Galaxies. I don't mean to say that we'll never see a new MMO, but the free-to-play business model's ascension is complete. Don't expect to see another Star Wars: The Old Republic-sized launch anytime in the next five years.

Every weekday, the Retronauts Lunch Break brings you a dose of classic gaming action, but there's no need to worry if you can't watch our livestream; every Friday, we'll feature a roundup of all the videos produced over the past five days. But if your lunch hour is free, make sure to come back (at 12:00pm PST) starting Monday the 30th as we devote a new week of Lunch Breaks to Resident Evil games -- along with our regular Friday playthrough of A Link to the Past. And hey, why not subscribe to our Twitch.tv feed while you're at it?

1/23/12 - Maniac Mansion

Blizzard's annual BlizzCon convention won't be sticking to its annual schedule this year. For the first time since 2006, Blizzard fans won't be gathering at the Anaheim Convention Center to celebrate all things Blizzard.

Blizzard made the surprising announcement on its blog earlier today. BlizzCon will return in 2013 -- it isn't a matter of the event being put on ice indefinitely -- and to make up for its absence this year, Blizzard announced the 2012 Battle.net World Championship. Set to be held later this year in Asia, it'll be home to the World Championship tournaments for both StarCraft II and World of Warcraft. It's another example of Blizzard supporting eSports and professional gaming, with it having already hosted tournaments at BlizzCon itself.

Electronic Arts has continued working to expand Origin into something more than a home for its own games. The publisher announced today it has agreed to deals with 11 third-party publishers to bring their games to Origin's catalog.

Trion Worlds MMO Rift (pictured above) is the first of these additions and is now available. Specific games beyond that weren't mentioned, just that in the "coming months" Origin will also be home to titles from Robot Entertainment (Orcs Must Die), CD Projekt RED (The Witcher 2), Freebird Games (To the Moon), Recoil Games (Rochard), Autumn Games (Jimmie Johnson's Anything With An Engine), 1C Company (IL-2 Sturmovik), inXile Entertainment (Choplifter HD), Paradox Interactive (Magicka), Core Learning Ltd., and N3V Games (Arcania: Gothic 4).

Ubisoft is no stranger to DRM controversies. This was amply demonstrated last year between reviving always-online DRM (and deeming it a success) and what happened with From Dust. But it was the DRM implemented in one of Ubisoft's final releases in 2011 that feels like it may have finally stepped over the line.

DRM, or digital rights management, is a form of technology used by companies in the entertainment and technology fields to control how their products are used. In the case of videogames, it might mean you can only play when you're connected to the internet (as mentioned above) or if you've got the disc in the drive. The goal of DRM is generally to combat piracy, but it isn't always (if ever) effective in that pursuit.

Much like other recent Electronic Arts game releases on PC, Mass Effect 3 will not be available through Steam. And regardless of what format you decide to get the game in -- digital or physical -- Origin is a requirement for playing.

In a post on the BioWare forums by community man Chris Priestly, some frequently-asked questions regarding the PC version of Mass Effect 3 (launching on March 6 for PC and consoles) were addressed. Regarding a release on Steam, it's said that "during initial release" the digital version will be available through Origin and "a number of other 3rd party digital retailers," Steam not being among them.

The list of companies opposing the Stop Online Piracy Act has grown a bit longer today with both Torchlight developer Runic Games and Nvidia sharing their official stances on the proposed bill.

A thread was made on the Runic Games forums yesterday inquiring about the company's stance on SOPA. A response was posted today which reads in part, "It is clear that the scope of the proposed legislation would give unnecessarily broad power to large corporations while reducing the rights of individual citizens -- and it won't even stop software piracy," pointing to this Boing Boing story as evidence.

Concerns voiced by fans have caused CD Projekt Red, the developer of The Witcher 2, to drastically alter the method with which it had been going after those whom allegedly pirated its games.

It was reported in December that a law firm was contacting those suspected of pirating CD Projekt's games and demanding they either fork over money for a settlement or be faced with a lawsuit. A statement from the company claimed, "We can assure you that we only take legal actions against users who we are 100 percent sure have downloaded our game illegally." However, it provided no evidence of it being able to prove such a thing, leading to concerns that legitimate gamers could be targeted.

A number of those in the games industry have taken a stand against the Stop Online Piracy Act, although the industry's trade association, the ESA, is among those that do support it. The latest member of the industry to come out against the bill -- which you can read more about here -- is League of Legends developer Riot Games, and joining it is a prominent member of LoL's community: U.S. Representative Jared Polis.

In a post on the game's official forums today, Riot outlined its feelings on SOPA (and, by extension, the similarly problematic Protect IP Act). "We're not usually inclined to comment on politics. We're a game company, and making games is just a whole lot more fun," stated the post, written by CEO Brandon Beck. "But there is legislation under consideration today by the United States Congress that gives us serious concern."

Following a tease last month, the first wave of downloadable content for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has been officially detailed and is scheduled to be out in two weeks' time.

The first part of what Activision is calling the Modern Warfare 3 Content Season for Call of Duty Elite starts on January 24. It will continue through September for a nine-month DLC season, with "at least 20 content drops" coming over that span. Content will be released at least once a month, but only Call of Duty Elite members will have access -- those who did not opt to pay the $50 per year for a premium Elite subscription have to wait for traditional DLC bundles to be released every few months.

X-COM fans were pleasantly surprised last week when it was revealed that a second new XCOM game is in the works and, unlike the other, this one is a strategy game. Following the release of some early details last week, we now have the first screenshot of the game in action.

As seen in the image above, combat takes place in the style of a turn-based strategy game that should feel much more natural to series fans than that of 2K Marin's upcoming XCOM first-person shooter.

In typical Blizzard fashion, the company has given no solid indication of exactly when Diablo III will be coming out beyond "early 2012." According to Best Buy, the game's release is just a few weeks away.

The image below was discovered on Twitter by Joystiq; it shows a Diablo III display from a Best Buy located in Rochester, Minnesota. If the poster is to be believed, the game will be out on February 1 in the United States, and Best Buy (or at least this one particular location) will be opening at midnight to sell the game.

Although it feels as though the market for digital PC games distribution is becoming more and more competitive, that hasn't stopped Steam from continuing to grow.

The Valve-operated distribution service saw sales increase by over 100 percent in 2011 as compared with 2010. Remarkably, that's seven years in a row it has managed that feat, though it wasn't the only milestone Valve had to brag about. During the Steam Holiday Sale at the end of the year, Steam surpassed 5 million simultaneous players.

An official list of supporters for the much-maligned Stop Online Piracy Act, better known to many as SOPA, shows that the videogame industry is in the bill's corner. That's not to say every company in the industry has come right out and said as much, but many of them do at least support it by proxy as members of the Entertainment Software Association, the game industry's trade association. The ESA has made it official that it supports the anti-piracy bill which many fear, if passed, will censor the Internet and stifle innovation.

The bill's name might make it sound noble enough -- stomping out piracy is good news for everyone except those who illegally download and distribute copyrighted content -- but there are numerous reasons why opponents believe it should not be passed. Among the most important of these is the vague wording with which the bill is written, a serious problem for a piece of legislation. There are countless articles, videos, and infographics devoted to the subject, but at its most basic level it threatens to result in sites being shut down, startups facing potentially unfair legal action, and pervasive censorship as websites -- including social media sites like Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook -- seek to prevent their users from sharing anything that the website in question could be held accountable for.

While the revival of X-COM was exciting news for fans when it was revealed back in 2010, many were upset that its strategy game roots had been abandoned in favor of that of a first-person shooter. For those who are still lamenting the franchise's new direction, there's great news to be had today: an XCOM strategy game is in the works at Firaxis Games.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown brings back the same subtitle used in the very first game, though at this point we don't know if that's an indication of how closely that game's story or setting will influence the new one. The game utilizes a combination of real-time and turn-based strategy, the latter of which is something Firaxis has become pretty good at handling, having developed Sid Meier's games for more than a decade including Civilization III, IV, and V.

Gary Oldman is a well-respected actor who has, for much of his career, been best known for playing the bad guy. In recent years he's taken on a number of roles that placed him on the other side, most notably that of James Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Batman movies. He's also assumed the role of "the good guy" in some videogames; while he's reprised the role of Ignitus in Spyro more often, the best-selling of the games he's appeared in are Treyarch's two most recent Call of Duty games.

Oldman was a guest on Conan last night, and during the interview O'Brien brought up Oldman's performance as Viktor Reznov in World at War and Black Ops. In addition to providing a small sampling of Reznov saying things such as, "Viktor Reznov! He talks a little like this," Oldman went on to demonstrate what it's like to record voiceovers for a videogame.

It won't cost you a penny to get a taste of Microsoft Flight once it's released on PC this year. Microsoft today announced plans to distribute its Flight Simulator successor in free-to-play fashion, allowing gamers to play a portion of the game for free before paying to unlock new content, if they so desire.

Releasing on PC sometime this spring as a downloadable game, the free version of Flight allows players to fly around Hawaii, completing missions, challenges, and finding secret aerocaches hidden around the island. From there you'll be able to receive an additional batch of content simply by signing into Games for Windows Live; anyone with an Xbox Live account will already have one, and those who do not can make an account for free. Doing so will unlock the Boeing Stearman plane, extra missions, and access to both Achievements and an Online Pilot Profile.

The Shenmue spin-off social game launched in Japan in late 2010 has already been killed off. A message posted on the Shenmue Gai website recently thanked players for playing and noted the service was being closed.

The game was known by a variety of names in English -- Shenmue Town, Shenmue City, and Shenmue World -- despite it never being available in English-speaking countries. It was first announced in 2010 shortly before its launch in December of that year. The unexpected game was developed by YS Net, the company led by Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki, and was published by Sega for the Yahoo Mobage social game service.

Star Wars: The Old Republic players were understandably concerned when a post on Reddit over the weekend revealed that BioWare was seemingly banning players for visiting a certain planet and looting containers found there. As it turns out, the matter is not quite so simple, and no permanent bans were handed out as a result of this.

The planet Ilum is intended for higher-level players (40 and above) and, as such, has loot containers meant for those players. Just because the game recommends you only visit once you've reached level 40 doesn't mean you can't go there sooner, but it appeared doing so and collecting loot could result in a ban for a Terms of Service violation. That would be bad under any circumstances, but when you throw in the fact that players pay a subscription to play, it seemed even worse.

The latest videogame target of hackers is Trion Worlds MMO Rift. The game's publisher is notifying customers that an account database has been breached, potentially revealing information like user names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, and, most alarmingly, the first and last four digits of users' credit card numbers.

At this point Trion claims "there is no evidence, and we have no reason to believe, that full credit card information was accessed or compromised in any way." However reassuring that may or may not be, the company is working to bolster its security to prevent subsequent attacks as it continues investigating the severity of the breach.

Not long after GameFly launched a public beta of its Unlimited PC Play client, Direct2Drive has announced plans to brings its games and customers over to GameFly so that everything is handled through one outlet.

Direct2Drive was acquired by GameFly earlier this year, though it was unclear if the digital computer games distributor would continue to operate on its own. This upcoming transition will include new GameFly accounts being made for Direct2Drive customers who don't already have them; those who do will have their accounts merged, assuming they share the same email address. How this will work and more is outlined in an FAQ posted on Direct2Drive's website, and a few items in particular should be seen by the site's customers.

Even before Star Wars: The Old Republic was officially released on Tuesday, long server queues were a problem for many during the early access period. The long waits to play have only continued now that the game is available for everyone and, in certain cases, that's not about to change.

"As many of you know, we're experiencing high load and corresponding queues on some servers," said senior online community manager Stephen Reid on the game's official forums. "This is to be expected during launch, as a high number of people want to play the game, and for long stretches at a time."

With Platinum Games handling development of Metal Gear Rising and the future of the core Metal Gear Solid series unclear, Hideo Kojima is currently busy at work on a new game that will be less linear than the sort of games we're used to seeing his name on.

"The kind of game I'm making is some game that has a very wide entrance, a very open entrance," Kojima told CNN. "Rather than making something very cinematic, [I plan to] make something very free."

Update: Bowling has released the first screenshot of the content coming in January on Twitter. What you see above is the first look at a new level named Park.

Original Story: The first batch of downloadable content for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be available in about a month's time, but only for Call of Duty Elite subscribers on Xbox 360 at first.

Australia's Classification Board has refused to grant Syndicate a rating. In effect this bans the title from being sold in its current form, and publisher Electronic Arts has no intention of changing the game in order to make it acceptable.

It would not be the first time something like this happened -- a number of games have been refused classification over the years by Australia including Mortal Kombat, The Witcher 2, and 50 Cent: Bulletproof. The latter two were ultimately altered to make them more acceptable while Mortal Kombat remains unavailable in Australia.

GameFly has launched a public beta of its digital PC client today, making it possible for all of its members to try out the Unlimited PC Play feature announced back in August.

An ongoing private beta allowed a select number of GameFly members to try the new aspect of the service for themselves. Unlimited PC Play, just as the name implies, offers downloadable version of certain PC games which can be played as much as you'd like. These don't count as rentals; you can still have a physical game out in addition to any PC games you download, but these digital games are only playable as long as you remain a paying member of GameFly.

As if the Steam Holiday Sales in years past was not enough, Valve has decided to continue the trend established this summer of making Steam sales much more involved than mere sales.

Like the Steam Summer Sale, there are plenty of deals on games, including special daily deals. Today's include Fable III ($12.49, from $49.99), Just Cause 2 ($4.99, from $19.99), Portal 2 ($7.49, from $29.99), Sam & Max (the complete series for $12.49, from $49.99), Orcs Must Die ($3.74, from $14.99) and Metro 2033 ($4.99, from $19.99). There are also deals on bundles like PopCap's Complete Pack for $49.99 or the Super Indie Bundle (containing Cave Story+, Limbo, Revenge of the Titans, and more) for $19.99. Other individual titles are on sale as well, though there are far too many to list them all here. (Two that caught my eye: Evil Genius for $2.49 and Terraria for $4.99.)

Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently only playable by a select number of users who decided to pre-order the game ahead of its release tomorrow, and yet the wait to log in can, at times, be downright unbearable.

If you've played an MMO of some sort before, it's possible you've run into a server queue. At its most basic level, you're forced to wait to log in to a particular server because of the large number of users currently on it. You're of course free to move to a server that is less populated, but that typically means leaving your character(s) behind unless you're willing to pay a fee.

While Skyrim players continue to wait for fixes to the various problems they're facing, Bethesda is watching the money roll in from its latest RPG release. Just over a month after its release on November 11, Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media announced the game has shipped 10 million units worldwide.

Keep in mind that is not 10 million units sold, but rather the number shipped to retailers. It's impressive nonetheless, but we also know the actual sales are noteworthy in their own right -- it was the second-best selling in the United States during November according to the NPD Group, and was only about 500,000 units away from surpassing lifetime sales of its predecessor, Oblivion, by the end of the month.