Last December, Cryptic Studios packed up and moved in with Atari and Infogrames, in effect turning over all of their proprietary IP, tools, technology and even WIPs to their new parent company. Inside sources are now alive and abuzz that part of the turned over WIPs would be an MMO version of Neverwinter Nights.

Patch 3.1 for Blizzard's World of Warcraft is definitely coming soon - "promptly," in fact, as blue poster Wryxian said. The Dual spec patch has been the source of much excitement and anticipation among WoW players, although some are left in doubt due to "lack of info" on it. Wryxian, however, responds to that, saying: "The patch is definitely coming... shortly."

Although not officially confirmed yet, the grapevine has named the casualties of Electronic Arts' "cost-cutting measures." Studios that experienced significant layoffs are Mythic Entertainment, the guys behind Warhammer Online, and EA Tiburon, the studio responsible for Madden and other titles under the EA Sports banner.

We can't open the week without some speculation, now can we? Today we hear of the latest batch of rumors from UK's OPM publication. Though this batch of rumors come from the Official PlayStation Magazine, they do touch on some cross-platform franchises. (EA, I'm looking at you!). PSP 2 rumor, check. Rumors of sequels, check. Rumors of spin-offs, check.

What to do when your event is drawing flak and your circle of supporters are leaving one by one? Try a different strategy, for one. And this is what ESA seems to be doing for next year's E3. Talks of them "going public" are circulating the Internet's grapevines. But how probable is this move?

Rumors have been going around that the launch date of EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has been pegged down to September 23. To find out more about this, head on over to the full article by clicking on the "read more" link below.

The move to sack a hefty number of employees may be coming back to haunt publisher LucasArts. There's been word that a disgruntled employee who lost his job is out for a little payback. Information about future releases have allegedly been leaked. Know more in the full article up next.

When you play an MMORPG, part of the fun is having a social network of your own. Now if imagine a company were to buy a social network gaming startup for its MMORPG? That may be the case with EA Mythic, which is supposedly about to purchase Rupture from Shawn Fanning for possible use in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. More on this topic in the full article after the jump.

It may not have registered in your radar when Realtime Worlds reacquired the license for the cops-and-robbers MMORPG All Points Bulletin weeks back. But rumor has it that APB will be pitched to Rockstar Games as Grand Theft Auto Online. More details after the jump.

EGM is stirring it up again with a bunch of hot new rumors from Quartermann. Looks like we're in for a pretty sweet season: Quartermann's latest gossip includes word on a Halo spin-off coming late next year, a Grand Theft Auto MMO, and a whole lot more. Rumors galore in the full article!