Earlier in the week we reported that Glu had shut down the multiplayer servers for several games that were powered by its GameSpy Technologies multiplayer technology including Rebellion's Sniper Elite. After a few days of silence GameSpy Technologies has issued a rather lengthy response to the situation on its Facebook page.

The post starts by contradicting reports that say users were never informed of multiplayer sever shutdowns for various game titles:

This is sure to put analyst Michael Pachter on someone's naughty list: Recently he said that Activision needs to start charging a fee for the multiplayer portion of its Call of Duty games. Wedbush Securities industry analyst Michael Pachter made his comments during the Digital Game Monetization Summit in San Francisco, California (as reported by GamesIndustry International). During his presentation he said that Activision made a serious mistake when it didn't implement a subscription-based model for Call of Duty multiplayer.

According to what NCSoft PR director tells PC Gamer, the company has laid of an undisclosed number of employees at its Seattle office. That office is responsible for Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 publisher NCsoft has laid off several staff as part of a studio "realignment," it has confirmed. Davis confirmed to PC Gamer that it has laid off "several" staff members, but did not reveal specific numbers.

Update: End of Nations publisher Trion Worlds passed along an official statement on the current state of the game posted earlier today on its Facebook page. You can read the statement below in its entirety:

While some may want to live in the past and engage in behavior that is less than savory while playing online games competitively, professional gamers are increasingly finding out that aggressive, abrasive, misogynistic, racist, and homophobic language is no longer acceptable.

Sony Online Entertainment CEO John Smedley wants cheaters to know that he will hunt them down to the ends of the earth and ban them from the recently launched first-person sci-fi online shooter PlanetSide 2. Smedley took to Twitter to let the community know that he will not let cheaters ruin the game for everyone else.

CCP Games has revealed its plans to explain a typical day in the life of someone in the EVE Online universe as part of being included in The Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection. EVE Online was one of several games selected by MOMA to be on display for most of next year as part of an exhibit the explores and celebrates the history of gaming (more details here).

BVM Capital announced that it has made a seed round investment in health and fitness gaming company Fitness Interactive Experience (FIX). FIX is dedicated to making fitness and health fun, accessible and socially connected using massively multiplayer online games.

Recently Mojang co-founder Markus "Notch" Persson said that he was considering the possibility of charging a monthly fee for one game mode in his upcoming space-themed game 0x10c. The game will offer three modes, two of which would be free to play without a fee: Single Player and Multiplayer online or via LAN.

Ubisoft is apologizing to Far Cry 3 players for issues with the company's Uplay online gaming service. Some players have reported that they were unable to play the game because of Uplay server issues. Apparently setting the Uplay client to offline mode allows players to play part of the game, according to Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Major League Gaming, Dreamhack and the Electronic Sports League revealed today a partnership that unifies pro-gaming tournament activities throughout their 2012 and 2013 eSports seasons, according to this press release from Dreamhack - as reported by Polygon.

Major League Gaming announced a whopping 334 percent year-over-year growth in live streaming video viewers of its gaming competition. According to the pro gaming event company, more than 11.7 million unique viewers tuned in to watch the four 2012 MLG Pro Circuit Championships online, compared to the 2011 Pro Circuit season which drew 3.5 million unique online viewers. They also claim that more than 15 million hours of live online video were watched during Pro Circuit weekends by MLG's audience.

Electronic Arts is offering its popular online multiplayer game Battlefield 1942 for free to celebrate Battlefield series' 10th anniversary this fall. The only catch is that you'll have to install its Origin client in order to play it.

Wildcat Intellectual Property Holdings of Dallas, Texas has sued Wizards of the Coast in Federal Court claiming that the Hasbro subsidiary has violated its electronic trading-card patent by publishing "Magic: The Gathering Online." While Wildcat is suing Wizards of the Coast, it does not name Hasbro in its lawsuit.

While it is only a minor thing compared to some of the tragic losses (55 people have died so far in the United States, millions are without power and thousands have had their property severely damaged or destroyed) caused by Hurricane Sandy, Activision community manager Dan Amrich points out on his blog that the storm has affected online functionality for all Guitar Hero games and several Call of Duty titles.

343 Industries studio head Bonnie Ross and Halo 4 executive producer Kiki Wolfkill say that sexist and other anti-social behavior on Xbox Live is unacceptable and that they have a responsibility to tamp down or eliminate sexism in the industry. They also said that Microsoft does its best to monitor and ban players who abuse other players over Xbox Live. Ross and Wolfkill made their comments to GameSpot this week to promote Halo 4.

Big Fish Games has launched the first real-money gambling game in the United Kingdom through a partnership with Betable. The Big Fish Casino U.K. app lets players gamble for fun or make best with real cash via a new slot machine title. The game uses technology from Betable, a company hoping to take advantage of even more social mobile games in the future by enabling online gambling options.

An exploit related to code in the hardcore mode of Borderlands 2 for Xbox 360 is making the rounds and developer Gearbox Software is warning players about it and how to avoid it altogether. The problem apparently is not related to other versions of the game on PC and PS3. The exploit is supposedly tied to the hardcore game mode known as "Graveyard mode that was left in the game code by Gearbox Software. It apparently wipes the progress of players who come in contact with other players, much like a virus.

World of Tanks, World of Airplanes, and World of Warships creators Wargaming announced this morning that they are "fully underwriting" aircraft enthusiast David Cundall's efforts to recover British Spitfires reportedly buried in Burma at the end of World War II. The company's investment in Mr. Cundall's will allow him and the Burmese authorities to pursue the long-standing mystery of the Pacific theater.

Samarion S.E., an investor in online games, has taken over one of Europe's biggest online game companies Gamigo from newspaper publisher Axelrod Springer AG. Gamigo publishes and operates free-to-play MMORPGs and browser-based games. Axelrod Springer AG purchased a majority stake in the German company four years ago. Now it wants to focus on the "non-gaming aspects of its digital business" so it has decided to unload its holdings in Gamigo.

Earlier this month some Muslims in the Call of Duty community complained that the Favela multiplayer map in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was offensive because a painting placed above a toilet had holy teachings written around its frame "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty."

If you thought you could play an Electronic Arts game on Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console without having an account on its Origin network then you are so very sadly mistaken. A change in EA's privacy policy reveals that Wii U users who want to play Wii U games online will need to have an Origin account and a "Nintendo Network ID." Of course, this also means that - by signing up for an Origin account - you give EA permission to collect your email address, Mii information, friend list, country, language, and date of birth.

Ilyes 'Stephano' Satouri, a 19-year old French professional StarCraft II player found himself at the business end of a half-month suspension after joking over Battle.net during a professional competition that he had had sex with a 14-year-old girl. Stephano's comments earned him a suspension without pay for the month of October, according to a GameSpot report.

Riot Games has released an infographic that illustrates why its MOBA title, League of Legends, is the most played game in the entire world.

According to data on that colorful infographic, League of Legends has a total of 70 million registered Summoner names, 32 million active monthly users, and 12 million daily active users. The infographic also claims that over 1 billion game hours are logged every month in League of Legends.

The winners for the 2012 Game Developers Choice Online Awards have been announced with Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies designer Raph Koster being named "Online Game Legend."

Other big winners included Riot Games' League of Legends and BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic (which won multiple awards).

The full list of winners (thanks GII) can be found below:

Ontario-based web services company Treehouse is getting ready to rock and troll. The company, who was awarded a vague patent (United States Patent No. 8,180,858) for the "Method And System For Presenting Data Over A Network Based On Network User Choices And Collecting Real-Time Data Related To Said Choices" (or the 858 patent as they refer to it in their lawsuit) has decided to sue Turbine in Delaware for violating the patent with its game Dungeons & Dragons Online. Interestingly enough, the patent was awarded on May 15, 2012.

Riot Games has issued a final determination on those teams they alleged cheated this past weekend in the third day of the Season 2 League of Legends World Playoff Matches. Riot has concluded that Korean team Azubu Frost is guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct and will be fined 20 percent of its winnings. The fine will be donated to a Riot Games charity in Korea.

According to a report on Develop, World of Tanks, Guild Wars and Eve Online players have been hit by a huge security breach. According to the report the personal information of millions of PlaySpan Marketplace users has been leaked online including user IDs, email addresses and encrypted passwords.

Riot Games announced that it has rescheduled the remainder of the Season 2 League of Legends World Playoff matches for October 10 starting at 5:00 PM Pacific Time (that's 8:00 PM Eastern). The matches will be streamed live and free in high definition on Twitch and Own3D, and will feature player cams, replays, interviews with players and more.

The matches will be played in the following order, starting at 5:00 PM Pacific Time:

Match 1 - Team WE vs. Counter Logic Gaming EU quarterfinal match

Match 2 - M5.BenQ vs. Taipei Assassins semifinal match

A new book written by an executive for other executives uses gaming as a way to make workplace teams stronger. The new book is called "ENTERPRISE GAMES: Using Game Mechanics to Build a Better Business" (O'Reilly Media, October 20212), and is written by Michael Hugos. According to the PR for the book, which you can find on Amazon, managers and executives can learn better ways to manage teams from virtual worlds and the type of behavior needed to survive in them.