MCV reports that two more game companies have become embroiled in the hacking epidemic. On Friday, Gears of War developer, Epic, admitted that it was forced to deactivate its web sites and forums for a period of time following a hack.

“Our Epic Games web sites and forums were recently hacked. After some downtime, they’re back up and running now,” Epic founder Tim Sweeney stated. “The hackers may have obtained the email addresses and encrypted passwords of forum users. Plain text passwords weren’t revealed, but it’s possible that those passwords could be obtained by a brute-force attack on the encrypted passwords. Therefore, we have reset all passwords. The Unreal Developer Network hasn’t been compromised. Thankfully, none of our web sites ask for, or store, credit card information or other financial data.”

Then, over the weekend Nintendo discovered a possible phishing threat. As a consequence it then shut down the European Nintendo website and its Club Nintendo portal. This was the second intrusion for Nintendo in less than a week.

Sony has announced that a new PlayStation 3 headset will be releasing in September. It features a retractable microphone so that it can be used purely as headphones (for those times you don’t need the mic in your way), and includes 7.1 virtual surround sound. It also possesses buttons for volume and mute control, and will display its remaining battery power and sound settings on-screen. The headset will connect to your console via a wireless adapter that plugs in through the USB port. Current pricing information lists the device at $99.99.

According to Develop Online, Interplay has been thrown into financial disarray, placing several of their projects in danger. The company has doubts of their ability to continue operations as their working cash deficit nears $3 million and the threat of bankruptcy looms. They are no longer able to pay developers in advance and have resorted to making payment upon the title’s release. The projects potentially affected by these financial woes include Fallout Online, ClayFighter, Stonekeep, Descent, and Earthworm Jim 4.

Develop Online reports that Atari may be selling its California studio, Cryptic, for $50 million to China’s online gaming giant, Perfect World. Cryptic was acquired by Atari in 2008 for $27 million, and went on to build such MMO titles as Star Trek Online and Champions Online.

The studio has been losing money for over two years, and is being sold in accordance with the Atari’s new strategy of “fewer but more profitable releases and further expansion into casual online and mobile games.” Perfect World believes the sale will assist them in attaining more visibility in the US.

The deal has yet to be finalized.

Sony has FINALLY announced that they will fully restore all PlayStation Network services (including Music Unlimited and the PSN Store) in the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and Asia, excluding Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea by the end of this week.

Since issues began in April, the company has implemented security enhancements to the network infrastructure, and conducted testing of the payment process and commerce functions. The first phase of PlayStation Network and Qriocity restoration began on May 15 in the Americas and Europe/PAL territories, followed by Japan and Asian countries and regions on May 28, when the company brought partial services back online. With this partial restoration users were able to access to some of the services such as online game play, account management, friend lists and chat functionality.

The company will be offering customers a Welcome Back package of services and premium content to all registered PlayStation Network and Qriocity account holders. The details of this program will continue to be revealed regionally.

The first batch of BlizzCon tickets ($175) goes on sale this Saturday, May 21 at 10 am PT. If you can’t be online at that time or if tickets sell out before you have a chance to snag some, there will be more opportunities. A second batch of tickets goes on sale Wednesday, May 25 at 7 pm PT, and tickets ($500) to a special charity dinner to benefit the Children’s Hospital of Orange County will be going on sale Saturday, May 28 at 10 am PT.

Earlier this month we brought you the teaser trailer, but now we have some first gameplay looks at Renegade Ops.

Renegade Ops is a military, co-op shooter created by Just Cause developer, Avalanche Studios. The game is scheduled to release mayhem and destruction via the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC digital download later this year.

According to Joystiq, Microsoft has confirmed that some Xbox 360 consoles aren’t compatible with the upcoming, mandatory firmware update. The console manufacturer will replace consoles that become unable to read retail game discs with a new Xbox 360 Slim that sports a 250 GB hard drive.

“Following a recent update to our system software, we have become aware of an issue that is preventing a very small number of Xbox 360 owners from playing retail game discs,” the Microsoft statement reads. “This issue manifests itself a as a unique ‘disc unreadable’ or ‘disc unsupported’ error on the screen. We are also able to detect this issue over Xbox Live and are proactively reaching out to customers that may be impacted to replace their console.”

Sony has revealed that in conjunction with their restoration of services, they have been working on a PS3 system software update that requires all PSN users to change their password. The update (v3.61) is mandatory and is available now. Your password can only be changed on your own PS3 (or a PS3 on which your PSN account was activated), as an added layer of security. If you have never downloaded any content using your account on the system, an email will be sent to the registered sign-in ID (email address) associated with your account when you first attempt to sign-in to PSN. This e-mail will contain a link that will enable you to change your password. In this email, click on the link and follow the instructions. Once you have changed your password you can sign-in to your account using your new password.

As the PlayStation Network outage continues, a security expert who testified about the situation in Congress is backpedaling on some of his claims. Dr. Eugene Spafford originally stated before the House of Representatives that Sony was using outdated security measures and didn’t have a firewall in place when the network was breached on April 20. However, Bitmob is reporting that Dr. Spafford submitted a written statement to accompany his testimony that indicates some of his statements are unconfirmed. ”I have no information about what protections [Sony] had in place, although some news reports indicate that Sony was running software that was badly out of date and had been warned about that risk.”

Source: ShackNews

It’s been 11 years since the release of Diablo II, but it looks like we’re finally in the home stretch for the return of the classic dungeon-crawler series. Blizzard’s Michael Morhaime recently stated in a quarterly conference call with financial media that testing has begun on Diablo III, and that external testing (public beta, perhaps?) is set for later this year. He also indicated that the developer has no unannounced games planned for the remainder of 2011. No definite release information is available for either Diablo III or for the next Starcraft game, so chances are they both might not be ready for the holiday buying season.

Source: ShackNews

Publisher Just a Game has announced that the PC version of the Xbox Live Arcade shooter Aqua: Naval Warfare is set to be released this month through digital distribution outlets. The game, originally developed by Games Distillery for the Xbox 360, features co-op and competitive multiplayer modes to go along with its single-player campaign, in which you lead a fleet of customizable ships in battle in a world covered with water after a planet-wide cataclysm.

Source: ShackNews

Sony claims that an Anonymous slogan was found on a compromised SOE server, but the hacking group denied responsibility for the recent attack in a recent statement to The UK Guardian. The group claimed that the hack, was not in keeping with their agenda of fighting criminal activities.

“Public support is not gained by stealing credit card info and personal identities. We are trying to fight criminal activities by corporations and governments, not steal credit cards. If a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable. While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our leadership does not condone credit card theft.”

Sega has provided a first look at Avalanche’s Renegade Ops in this teaser trailer. The title was announced as about driving or flying and blowing stuff up while playing with your friends, and the video seems to agree. Though initially slated as a PSN/XBLA release, a PC flavor has since been confirmed.

New rumors regarding Nintendo’s Wii successor, Project Cafe, suggest it has 8GB of flash memory storage instead of a hard drive. Kotaku sources suggest that the new console will also be able to save to SD cards, similar to the Wii, DSi and 3DS. Nintendo will also supposedly use a propriety disc format that’s able to hold 25GB of data. The new console is alleged to be at least as powerful as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but there’s been no mention as to whether the console’s resolution will be capped at 1080i or 1080p.

The only details Nintendo has confirmed are that the company will release a new home console in 2012 and that a playable model will be shown at E3 next month.