Perfect World Entertainment's Cryptic Studios has issued a statement warning customers of its various MMO titles that it has suffered from a security breach. The security breach happened way back in December 2010, but was only recently detected because the company beefed up its security. The breach resulted in hackers obtaining user account names and encrypted passwords, some of which they apparently have managed to crack.

While there has been plenty of talk about BioWare's and EA's MMO Star Trek: The Old Republic suffering subscriber loss already, it seems that the game's owners and operators have a great way to inoculate themselves from further erosion: making the game available in more countries. EA announced plans to launch the game deeper into Europe and in countries in the Middle East.

Players that managed to grind their way to level 50 in Star Wars: The Old Republic as of last night (5:00 PM GMT), got a nice gift from EA: 30 days of free game time. BioWare is also offering former SWTOR subscribers seven days of free game time to come back and check out the latest update that was released yesterday. If players reactivate their old accounts before April 21, BioWare will also give them a Legacy Tauntaun Ram Pet - the same pet it gave to all current subscribers of SWTOR yesterday.

Here is what they say about the new update:

A company called Worlds Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for infringing a patent the company holds related to virtual worlds. Let the trolling begin anew. Worlds Inc. claims that the company is violating a patent it holds related to "systems and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space." The company alleges in its claim that Activision's World of Warcraft and Call of Duty games violate its patents and that it is due compensation for it.

Registered sex offenders of all designations residing in the state of New York will no longer be able to interact with children in some online console and PC games. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office has convinced several platform holders and game companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros. and Disney Interactive Media Group to shut down the communication privileges of registered sex offenders.

China has an estimated 180 million gamers, and a new report suggests that they spend a fair amount of their hard earned money every month on online games. This news comes from a new study conducted by analyst group Niko Partners.

We're not sure if it's right or wrong, but Nival Interactive says that it plans to offer female players discounts and incentives to join a team and play its upcoming online strategy game, Prime World. This kind of gender preference is usually exclusive to things like dating services, and bars that host ladies night... Female players will pay less for virtual characters, and teams formed of men and women will receive bonuses.

If the 2012 presidential election were held today and inside Nexon's MMO Maple Story, President Barack Obama would get a second term. The results come from a web-based poll that was conducted by Nexon among its U.S. Maple Story players between March 23 - 26. 

THQ is shifting its game Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium from an MMO to a single-player game with multiplayer components. The company said in a press release issued today that the shift will result in hundreds of layoffs across multiple studios.

Alexander Gianturco, the EVE Online player who mocked a suicidal player during a live stream of a panel at the EVE Online FanFest last week, announced that he is resigning as the head of the player-run, in-game government (thanks to Andrew Eisen for the tip). Gianturco was the Chairman of the Council of Stellar Management (CSM).

An elected representative of the EVE Online community strongly apologizes for his comments and actions during a live feed of the EVE Online FanFest event that took place last week. CCP Games said earlier in the week that it was appalled at the comments made by member of the EVE Online community and that it would launch an investigation.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning maker 38 Studios has added two game industry veterans: John Blakely and Mark Hansen. John Blakely joins the company as senior vice-president of development, while Mark Hansen takes the role of senior vice-president of operations & business.

Cloud-based streaming service Gaikai is doing something that no company has ever done: streaming a major MMO. The company, along with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced a partnership that will see The Lord of The Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online streamed to players across North America directly from each game's own website.

RuneScape developer Jagex has frozen development on its space MMO Stellar Dawn and eliminated 12 positions as part of a reorganization effort. The company said that it halted development of the game to put the focus on its flagship MMO RuneScape and the upcoming Transformers Universe MMO that it has been developing.

Sony Online Entertainment has finally decided that it is time to shut down EverQuest Online Adventures, its subscription-based MMORPG for the PlayStation 2, as well as two long-running online games - Cosmic Rift, Infantry, and Star Chamber: The Harbinger Saga. 

It's pretty sad when people have a better chance of staying married in a virtual world than in real life, but that is apparently the case, if you compare the divorce rates in the MMO MapleStory with real-world divorce rates. VentureBeat recently talked to marriage expert Athena Carrillo Lee of Mind Body Spirit Therapy in Los Angeles about MapleStory marriages and why people get involved in them.

According to a new study conducted by the Institute for Special Populations Research in New York, some types of games are more addictive than others and have the potential to create "problem gaming" habits in a small percentage of gamers. While the mental health community is not quite ready to make the leap of faith it takes to proclaim that video game addiction is a real mental disorder like gambling and drug addiction, studies like this one are certainly trying to establish causation.

BioWare has explained some of the recent Star Wars: The Old Republic bans and vowed to make adjustments to areas where players have been found to be exploiting. Last week some players were banned from playing because they were looting containers in planet Ilum at too low a level - a move that apparently made many in the SWTOR community upset. Community manager Stephen Reid took to the SWTOR website to explain exactly what had happened and why some players were banned.

Is BioWare banning Star Wars The Old Republic players for accessing areas and loot meant for higher level characters or is someone pulling everyone's leg in this Reddit thread? Rock, Paper, Shotgun examines the story and the alleged email from BioWare. 

Trion Worlds, makers of the MMO Rift Online, has been hacked according to an email it sent out to subscribers last night. The company said in the letter that unknown intruders gained access to a Trio Worlds account database that contained personal user information and credit card data.

After reports of Star Wars: The Old Republic early access users complaining about queues to get into game servers that lasted multiple hours, BioWare has said publicly that they are looking into the issue. The game is set to launch officially tomorrow. Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer – Live Services posted the following message on the official SWTOR web site:

Despite a recent security breach in November and contending with the timing of Zynga's initial public offering, Nexon will makes its debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange December 14, according to Reuters. The social and online game developer will reportedly sell at around ¥1300 each with Nexon expecting to raise around ¥91 billion, or $1.2 billion USD, with a market value of ¥560 billion.

Starting January 6 Square Enix will begin charging subscribers who are still playing Final Fantasy XIV online. The Final Fantasy-based MMO has been free for almost a year because of a myriad of technical problems that the company couldn't initially overcome. The MMO was so bad that it made Square Enix reevaluate how it handles developing and lunching MMO's.

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).

Over 330,000 new players have joined DC Universe Online in eight days since SOE switched the game from the traditional MMO subscription model to a free-to-play model. SOE's John Smedley claims that these new users represent a ridiculous 1000 percent growth in "concurrent users" in just over a week. The game officially went free-to-play on November 1.

These concurrent users do have a downside - more traffic, more congestion and long queue lines to got on servers, according to SOE.

Free-to-play MMO company Nexon is planning an initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange next month, according to a TechCrunch report. The IPO is reportedly worth $1.3 billion USD, or ¥100 billion. The TechCrunch report is based on a report in the Japanese business paper The Nikkei. If the valuation turns out to be accurate, it could make Nexon the most valuable IPO in Japan this year. The IPO will be handled by Nomura Securities, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, with Nexon expected to be approved for the listing by the end of the week.

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.

DC Universe Online had about 30,000 paid subscribers prior to switching over to a free-to-play model. Apparently that switch has helped the game gain an additional 90,000 registered users. Sony Online Entertainment, which manages the DC Comics-based superhero MMO, said the surge in interest represents a 400 percent increase on previous figures.

It looks like the online game Mythos is about to disappear from the European gaming landscape. MMORPG.com is reporting that MMO operator Frogster will discontinue operation of the game on October 27. The game launched in April but did not gain the kind of player support that the company had hoped. The company made the official announcement via the game's forums:

Turbine Entertainment sent out an alert this morning informing subscribers of its various MMO titles that a third-party "may have attempted to access" forum accounts. While the company says that there is no indication that any accounts were modified or compromised, it is urging subscribers to change their passwords for the sake of safety and security. One of the curious things about the email is that it seems to indicate that this happened sometime before October 11. Why Turbine waited this long we do not know. From the email sent out this morning: