Xbox Live Gamertags and passwords purportedly leak

UPDATE: Microsoft responded to our request for comment with the following statement from a spokesperson, which indicates that the company regards the "xbox dump" user information as a minor phishing incident, not a major network breach:

"We do not have any evidence the Xbox Live service has been compromised. We take the security of our service seriously and work on an ongoing basis to improve it against evolving threats. However, we are aware that phishing attackers will occasionally post small lists of victims on public channels, and we will work directly with the impacted members to resolve any unauthorized changes to their accounts. As always, we highly recommend our members follow the Xbox Live Account Security guidance provided at www.xbox.com/security to protect your account."

Microsoft may be sweating out a possible rehash of Sony's PlayStation Network nightmare from earlier this year if an anonymous posting of dozens of purported Xbox Live Gamertags and passwords is what it claims to be.

We've seen an anonymous Pastebin.com data dump called "xbox dump" posted Monday that contains more than 90 supposed gamertags, most with associated email addresses and passwords.

Microsoft had yet to respond to a request for more information and it couldn't be confirmed Tuesday if the Pastebin document contained real Xbox Live user information. Even if a number of Xbox Live members had their private information compromised somehow, it obviously would remain to be seen if the "xbox dump" document was part of a larger security breach or just a one-off affair.

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Wii Records What You Play, How Long

In a recently released “Iwata Asks!” interview, Nintendo delves into the decisions that went into making the Wii Message Board and discusses some interesting features. The one that might raise the most eyebrows, though, is Iwata’s discussion of the “Play History”, a feature which automatically collects information on what games you’ve been playing and for how long and, currently, it can’t be erased.

The idea behind this functionality came from Iwata wanting parents to get more involved with their children’s play-time and being able to keep track of how much time they spend on the system.

I thought constantly about what we could do to stop games being regarded with hostility in the family. So I came up with a suggestion, perhaps a rather outlandish one! (laughs) What I thought was that if a parent said that their child was only allowed to play games for one hour a day, how about making it so the console actually turns itself off after an hour? I realise the head of a games company shouldn’t think things like that! (laughs)

Fortunately, the Wii won’t be turning off automatically on you, but your Mom, Dad, or spouse will be able to find out if you’ve been logging serious hours on Princess Peach’s Erotic Journey (hey, Nintendo said they weren’t going to shy away from M-rated titles this generation!)

Read More | Nintendo of Europe

Gallery: Wii Records What You Play, How Long