UPDATED: NCsoft deflects blame for Guild Wars 2 password hacks

UPDATED:NCsoft has contacted MCV to explain that not all of the 11,000 emails it received were related to hacking. Some referred to lost emails and assorted other non-related issues.

ORIGINAL STORY AS FOLLOWS: It is estimated that around 11,000 Guild Wars 2 players have had their accounts hacked [or have had problems accessing their account, as NCsoft has clarified], developer NCsoft has admitted.

However, the studio claims that it is not its systems that are to blame but instead users who don’t bother to create unique passwords for each title they register for.

ArenaNet reportedly received 8,500 email complaints of irregular account access over the weekend of September 1st and a further 2,500 on Monday September 3rd.

It insists, though, that its data servers have not been breached and all those who are affected have been so because they have used not used a unique password.

If you don’t want your account hacked, don’t use the same email address and password for Guild Wars 2 that you’ve used for another game or web site,” the studio explained in an official Q&A.

Hackers have big lists of email addresses and passwords that they’ve harvested from malware and from security vulnerabilities in other games and web sites, and they’re systematically testing Guild Wars 2 looking for matching accounts.”