Account information from more than 13 million MapleStory players was compromised in a recent hacking incident, according to a report in the Korean Herald. According to that report, the attack took place last Thursday on Thanksgiving, and affected three-quarters of the game's player-base - right around 13.2 million people. The data that may have been stolen included player names, user IDs, passwords, and registration numbers (Korea's version of the US's social security number).

New research released by Newzoo digs a little deeper into the lucrative Chinese and Korean online gaming markets. The research focused on the 190 million Chinese (76 percent) and 26 million Korean (60 percent) consumers ages 15 to 50 - who make up the majority of those who play games in those countries. Newzoo found that both countries were passionate about MMO games, with 100 million MMO gamers in China and 8 million in Korea. While both countries enjoy games, players in each country have different preferences when it comes to social and mobile gaming.

Nexon's popular MMO Mabinogi has been taken offline by the company over unauthorized real-money trading (or RMT). According to the company, it took the game completely offline to implement new security measures to curtail currency harvesting and resale. According to ThisisGame.com, players were notified only an hour before the company took the game down in Korea to implement the new security measures on October 4.

Nexon has pledged to compensate its customers for the downtime.

Korean MMO company Webzen and Red 5 have decided that continuing their court battle over Firefall isn't in their best interests. Instead the two companies have decided to settle the legal dispute related to the marketing of Red 5 in Asia out of court and withdraw all filings. The dispute is related to Webzen's marketing and publishing agreement for Firefall in Korea. Webzen felt that Red 5 did not fulfill its marketing obligations and ended up suing the company.

The South Korean Game Rating Board (GRB) has accused several MMO publishers of obstructing an investigation related to in-game "jackpot items," according to a report in This Is Game. The GRB wants to know from game makers if the in-game purchase of jackpot items should be considered gambling. The Jackpot item system lets players pay a set amount of in-game currency in return for a random item of potentially greater value.

The New York Times is reporting that minions of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il have found an interesting way of earning some much needed cash - MMO's. According to South Korean authorities, their neighbor to the North has created an army of young hackers and unleashed them on South Korea's most popular MMORPG's. This group is finding ways to exploit systems, gather in-game credits and convert it all back to cold hard cash.

Korean MMO publisher Webzen has filed a lawsuit against Red 5 Studios claiming that the developer breached a contract for the online shooter FireFall. Last month the developer filed for arbitration in a California court claiming that Webzen's new management failed to properly market the game - a provision in the original contract.

"We do not feel the new management of Webzen has honored their obligations towards Firefall, particularly in Asia," wrote CEO Mark Kern in an open letter published on the game's official forum. "The current management of Webzen is a stark contrast to the original CEO and executives who were once so excited to work with us on the game."

South Korean MMO giant NCsoft has made a multi-million dollar donation through its NCJapan division to relief efforts in the region. the company has reportedly made a $6.3 million dollar (500 million Yen) donation - the largest of any made by any other company from South Korea. NCJapan will also continue to offer online gaming services to the country as it recovers - where it is available.

While NCsoft is a medium player in the United States with games like City of Heroes, Lineage I & II, and Aion, in Asia they are a big deal. NCsoft's games such as the Linage series, are huge in Asia.

THQ is apparently planning a crazy promotional event at GDC for its soon-to-be-released action game Homefront. According to SF Weekly, THQ has hired actors to pose as anti-North Korean protesters, march across the Golden Gate bridge, down the streets of San Francisco, and stopping across the street from GDC at Yerba Buena Gardens.

It seems odd to decry North Korea's "human rights violations" to promote a video game, but THQ's marketing department didn't consult us. The staged promotional event will also feature speeches by global experts, musical performances, and the launch of 10,000 balloons. Nothing says "we've been invaded" like a bunch of balloons, after all.

The "event" will take place on Wednesday in San Francisco.

A bizarre series of photographs show just what Korean children have to go through in specialized military training camps designed to help them kick the habit of gaming. These gaming addiction boot camps (judging by the 15 photos) show some strange exercises such as young boys rubbing snow on their bare bodies, lying on their backs in the mud with their feet in the air, standing in the snow with gas masks and camouflage uniforms, standing outside in the cold with bare upper bodies yelling, lying bare-chested in the snow, and many other cruel and unusual situations.

Where is Amnesty International or other rights groups? Are children not afforded the same rights as prisoners everywhere else around the world?

Korean developer GamePix has decided that it will use Microsoft's Kinect motion sensing device for an upcoming massively multiplayer online game. Speaking to Inc. Gamers, GamePix's Jason Lim, "The game's support of gaming pads make it resemble console games even more, and is scheduled to support Kinect."

The game, Divine Soul, features combat similar to a beat 'em up like Tekken, which may use Kinect or a Gamepad.

While it is unclear how this game might use Kinect, the story on Inc. Gamers indicates that Microsoft plans to support the device on the Pc - or at least look the other way when developers hack the device for legitimate purposes that don't involve groping women with on screen hands.

We also do not know if Microsoft will only allow this is Asia, or if this is something that will be allowed in the west.

We will have to wait and see.

One document leaked by Wikileaks (from the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai) shows that at least some in the U.S. State Department might have a dim view of gamers. Buried in a leaked cable entitled "SHANGHAI SCHOLARS EXPRESS CONCERN OVER DELAY IN SIX-PARTY" (September 2008 ) is an interesting evaluation of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Il's three sons and a mention of video games.

Amidst the details on six-party talks, Kim Jong-Il's health, the benefits of removing North Korea from the State Sponsors of Terror list, and "future leaders" of the country, is a mention of KJI's youngest son and his fascination with video games:

A report out of South Korea states that a 15-year old killed his mother and then committed suicide following a fight over online videogames.

A police official said that a fight began sometime on Monday in Busan, Korea when the mother scolded her son about playing online games. The mother was later found strangled to death in the family’s home, presumably the same place where the son was found dead after hanging himself.

The police official claimed that the alleged murderer’s sister said that the boy had been “playing violent Internet games for the past two to three years.”

Busan, a port city, is South Korea’s second-largest municipality after Seoul, boasting a population of about 3.6 million.

Sad.

Last month we did a story regarding a unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. distributing North-Korean developed mobile games, which were sourced through the Nosotek Joint Venture Company. A new CNN report offers a little bit more insight into doing business in a country run by “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong-il.

Nosotek is headed by German business man Volker Eloesser and its specialty is utilizing North Korean talent in order to create software, games and animation for foreign clients. Eloesser started Nosotek about three years ago, as he searched for something more “interesting and challenging.” He stated that it was “fairly easy” to find English-speaking workers and claimed that labor costs in North Korea are about half of what similar labor would cost in China.

Chinese online game operator and developer Shanda Games is apparently enjoying the fruits of operating in a near recession proof industry, as it has snatched up a Korean developer and entered into an alliance with China Network Television (CNTV).

Shanda announced its intention to gobble up Eyedentity Games for around $95 million U.S. Eyedentity was described as “a private developer of online games with over 100 game developers.” Its latest game, Dragon’s Nest, was released around the world and  billed as being “one of the most successful new online games in China this year.”

Shanda said that the deal would strengthen its international presence.

Korea’s Game Rating Board (GRB) is making life difficult for independent Korean game makers, strictly enforcing a law that virtually all games published in the country must be rated.

Posting to Reddit, a Korean game fan indicated that GRB recently swooped down upon a website for users of RPG Maker, a free tool that can be used to create role-playing games. While the games created and shared on the site were apparently not for sale, the GRB demanded that all the games shared on the site must be rated. The forum’s moderators, according to the Reddit user, deleted all the games on their website in light of paying the fees.

A unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has published a pair of North Korean-developed mobile games, causing some pundits to wonder about the legality of such dealings.

As detailed by Bloomberg, North Korea’s General Federation of Science and Technology developed the games: a 2007 bowling game named Big Lebowski Bowling and another based on the Men in Black movies. Both games were sourced through the Nosotek Joint Venture Company, which is billed as the “first western IT venture” in North Korea, and offers to provide invoices through “a Hong Kong or Chinese company.”

StarCraft II sold over 1.5 million copies during the first 48 hours after release, according to reports from Activision Blizzard earlier this week. Yet despite these record-breaking numbers, analysts are noting that sales aren't quite living up to expectations.

According to investment group Lazard Capital's analyst Colin Sebastian, "[T]his number is light of some forecasts, [but] we view this as largely a U.S./Europe number, with the majority of users in Korea still not reflected in the count." Sebastian notes that distribution models in Korea are often different than in the West, where users typically purchase a game outright, at or near launch. As a result, U.S. and European sales tend to be "front-loaded" towards heavy sales at launch that trail off fairly quickly.

When many gamers think of the South Korean gaming scene, the first images that jump to mind are of highly competitive real-time strategy games like Starcraft, or action-oriented MMORPGs like Aion or Lineage II. 

If you're a World of Warcraft subscriber you will get StarCraft II for free.. if you live in South Korea. Blizzard's promising RTS sequel is the greatest thing since sliced bread in the region, so the company has decided that WOW faithful deserve a reward. According to an IGN report Blizzard announced the news at a recent StarCraft II event in Seoul, South Korea to the delight of fans. The deal allegedly lasts as long as a player’s World of Warcraft account is active.

Lead producer Chris Sigaty said during the event that the move was "a way of giving something back to such a supportive and skilled community of players."

While this is a kind gesture on Blizzard's part, it is also a very clever way of further driving subscriptions for World of Warcraft. It would be fair to say that the StarCraft franchise enjoys ridiculous levels of popularity in the region, with shows dedicated to the game, multi-million dollar competitions televised on TV and Internet Cafes in the country driven by consumers who want to play.

A modified version of Blizzard’s StarCraft II has apparently made its way through Korea’s Games Rating Board (GRB) and earned a rating for gamers aged 12 and up.

This follows an earlier version of the game being branded with an adults only, or over 18, rating last month. 1UP, via a Team Liquid forum translation, indicates that Blizzard changed the color of in-game blood to black, removed vulgar language and exorcised smoking references in the game in order to achieve the lower age rating.

Blizzard may also consider releasing a separate version of StarCraft II that is aimed for adults only.

The game earned a “T” (Teen) rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).

The forthcoming entry from the most popular game in Korea has received an adults-only rating from that country’s Games Rating Board (GRB).

Blizzard’s StarCraft II was designated for gamers 18 and over, and follows test, or release candidates, for the game previously earning ratings for the over 15 year old gaming crowd. The Korea Times speculated that the decision might have something to do with a push by the government to “improve gaming behavior and curb compulsive gaming and addictions,” versus the game’s actual content contributing to the rating.

In a statement, the GRB said, “Considering that the RC (release candidate) version of the game is closer to what will be sold on the shelves compared to the beta versions, we looked more carefully at the content.”

In a bid to limit the screen time of its young gamers, Korea has unveiled some drastic initiatives.
 
Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will try to block certain online games after midnight, reports the Korea Herald. Midnight, however, appears to be a generic term, as gamers will be able to choose their specific six-hour long gaming black-out period: 12AM – 6AM, 1AM - 7AM or 2AM - 8 AM. Under the plan, online access to massively multiplayer games would automatically shut off at the appointed time.

A secondary aspect of the policy would have the Internet speeds of young gamers throttled down if users remain online for a “lengthy” period of time. The slowdown policy is said to be in current testing on four online games, with plans to spread the procedure to 19 games in total in the second half of 2010.

The Ministry will also target young gamers who use the registration numbers of their parents in order to circumnavigate such restrictions.