After optimizations and restarts yesterday, we had been stable across all platforms. Unfortunately, we encountered another outage at approximately 9:30 AM PST today.

- X360 was severely impacted, and the service is being restarted. It should be back online and we are monitoring closely.
- PC had an outage, but the service is offline currently and the service is being restarted. It should be back online and we are monitoring closely. We will then start checking the quality of the customer experience to determine possible next steps.
- PS3 appeared to have a brief outage, but has quickly recovered and the services is functioning properly at this time.

All teams are actively engaged in diagnosis and remediation. We are adding additional services to alleviate load. Despite having a major infrastructure in place, the peak traffic this weekend has been huge, 400% higher than any other Battlefield’s peak simultaneous users. The teams will continue to monitor the services closely. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates on the latest developments as they are relevant.

Source ~ Battlefield Blog

After last nights EA server outage on PS3 and PC, EA have found the issue and put a fix in place and brought the servers back online. This means that both PS3 and PC players can return back to playing Bad Company 2.

We are aware of a number of remaining disconnect issues on PC and we have released the “R5” server to hosts yesterday to address some of the disconnects. We are continuing to work on the remaining disconnect issues to have a solution as fast as possible as well as looking into reports of other issues raised on the forums for consoles: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-bad-company-2-ng/ and PC: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-bad- company-2-pc/

Battlefield Bad Company 2 has managed to prove so popular that yesterday the concurrent users in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 surpassed that in Battlefield 2 which has been going strong for almost 5 years.

Don’t forget to claim your M1 Rifle for use in BFBC2 by registering your other Battlefield games at http://veteran.battlefield.com.

Battlefield Bad Company™ 2 brings the spectacular Battlefield gameplay to the forefront of next-gen consoles and PC, featuring best-in-class vehicular combat set across a wide range of huge sandbox maps each with a different tactical focus. New vehicles like the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) and the UH-60 transport helicopter allow for all-new multiplayer tactics in the warzone. Extensive fine-tuning ensures that this will be the most realistic vehicle combat experience to date. Tactical destruction is taken to new heights with the updated DICE Frostbite engine. Players can now take down entire buildings or create their own vantage points by blasting holes through cover, thereby delivering a unique dynamic experience in every match.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The company licensed to operate World of Warcraft in China – home to 4 million of the MMO’s global installation base – still can’t find smooth sailing after being cleared to operate the game’s first expansion pack two weeks ago.

NetEase’s project chief for World of Warcraft, Li Riqiang, resigned without explanation, the company announced. No replacement has been named.

This latest disruption comes a couple weeks after NetEase had suspended all new registrations for the game, as it waited for government censors to approve the launch of The Burning Crusade.

Source ~ Kotaku

Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is one of the most bloodstained MMOs on the market – and fiercely loved by its community.

Since its release in 2008, the title has has evolved to attract a dedicated fanbase – despite some trouble on the way – with developer Funcom receiving wide acclaim for pulling off a very ambitious project.

This year sees the release of expansion pack Rise Of The Godslayer. Set in the Eastern empire of Khitai – a mysterious setting within the world of Hyboria – ROTG promises a wealth of new features. The pack also introduces the Khitan – an all-new character race.

CVG caught up with Funcom Game Director Craig Morrison to get the full story…

Full Story ~ CVG

Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of World of Warcraft, donated $1.1 million to The Make-A-Wish Foundation on Tuesday.

In a press release Wednesday, the charity dedicated to bringing joy to the lives of children with life-threatening medical conditions applauded the gamemaker for its large contribution.

The dough didn’t come straight out of Blizzard’s pocket. Players of the popular MMO pitched in by buying the Pandaren Monk in-game pet (pictured above left). Blizzard promised to donate $5 every time a player made a $10 microtransaction to gain the pet during the months of November and December.

“This donation also reflects the spirit and generosity of our players,” said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. “Their enthusiasm for World of Warcraft and for supporting a good cause made this possible.”

Full Story ~ Wired

A closed beta testing period for Blizzard Entertainment’s highly-anticipated real-time strategy game StarCraft II is set to kick off later this month, CEO Mike Morhaime said in a recent Activision-Blizzard earnings call.

The PC title is slated for release in mid-2010, and Blizzard plans another expansion to the studio’s World of Warcraft franchised, titled Cataclysm, for later this year.

Morhaime says Blizzard expects a “tremendous response” to the beta, which will be available worldwide. Blizzard has details on joining the beta testing on their official website.

Source ~ USA Today

Click here to view the embedded video.

It appears video game players are definitely looking forward to Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Publisher Electronic Arts says a demo of the first-person shooter is on pace to become their fastest downloaded demo on record, crossing the 2 million mark in five days.

The demo on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network showcases the game’s multiplayer mode, and requires players to work as a team to either defend or take over a base. The vehicle-friendly demo map, Port Valdez, features 12-on-12 matches.

EA also says a similar beta for the PC has “met great success,” according to a press release. The game is slated for release on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 2.

Source ~ USA Today

Click here to view the embedded video.

The video shows high-quality graphics that are simply amazing, mounts (with combat?), swimming, underwater leveling areas, housing, killer casting animations, more active weather, city sieges?

A few weeks ago, NCSoft announced an important addition to their Aion staff – community manager for North America Andrew Beegle a.k.a. “Tamat”, whose main job will be to interface with what is perhaps the most vocal segment of any MMO community.

Prior to this, we had known Andrew as our esteemed colleague from ZAM Network, where he worked as a game journalist for four years. This week, we steal a few moments from his busy schedule to answer some questions on forum hot topics, yes including the grind, use of bots, and other fun stuff…

IGNPC: The other hot topic these days is the rampant botting that seems to be taking place in the game. You guys mentioned in your October community address that there is a special team dedicated to hunting down and eliminating these bots. I think the question in people’s minds is, why do we still see a great number of the same bots we’ve been seeing every day, and what can we do to help?

Andrew Beegle: The special division of our customer service team that is dedicated to hunting down bots has made some solid progress. We’re still adding staff to that team, so progress on the bot front will continue and build over time. The unfortunate truth is that even though we’re banning thousands of accounts every day, the amount of new accounts being created with botting in mind does a great job of making it seem that we’re not banning anyone. However, that is not the reality.

Full Story ~IGN

I can speak from personal experience as an Aion player who leveled to 46 that I have encountered the same bots with the same names consistently and in the same areas of each map. You can’t leave many areas without stumbling over many bots. Like many other players, I have used their /autohuntingreport button (it’s on my sidebar).

There are bots that I have reported over a month ago and more than 10-20 times, each, yet they are still there. The forums are full of similar personal experiences. I cannot help but wonder if that button even does anything but to act as a stress reliever to the player who thinks he’s done something and turned it over to NCSoft to hopefully do something, sometime. I wonder if NCSoft even receives the report as action never appears to take place.

The same bots that I and many others have reported since our 20s level are now either level 50 or quickly approaching 50, the highest achievable level. If action is being taken, how is this remotely possible? If bots were banned and replaced by new bots, as Tamat suggests, then why are there so many bots approaching level 50? If NCSoft were as proactive as they attempt to claim, shouldn’t there be far less higher level bots than lower level bots as leveling takes quite a bit of time, even for a bot? I will believe it when I see it. Words are easy. It’s time for NCSoft to make the donuts, so to speak.

As anyone can see from the Aion Source forums from this thread and this thread, the community believes that bots are the number one major problem and have little faith in NCSoft. This concern even tops the heavy amount of game crashing during fotress sieges, which is a critical element of Aion. Many of us crash every few minutes in said sieges and are forced to dumb down the graphics to nothing in an effort to try to squeeze an extra minute or two before crashing.

Other MMOs have died quickly for not quickly correcting glaring issues. I truly hope that Aion will not be the next one to die an early death and be a game of “what could have been” to be discussed for years as people migrate to other MMOs or tire and move to other game types as being burned by so many takes its toll (i.e., Warhammer, AOC, being the more recent).