Ohhhhh boy... Talk about flame bait. Reuters recently quizzed various stakeholders and analysts on their take on the recession benefiting the MMO scene. With jobs being lost, a lot of folks have more time on their hands now, and that points to more play time for MMO players. So where does Pachter come in? Find out in the full article.

Ensemble Studios officially closed its doors last week, and Gamasutra was there for a final tour. They also report on the never-to-be Halo MMO, which turns out was a very serious project for Microsoft. Serious enough to actually start building Ensemble a campus to support it.

Did you know that the EverQuest MMORPG for the PlayStation 2 is still running? Did you even know it existed? Anyway, that's besides the point. Those who missed out on the PS2 version might get a chance to experience it on this get. SOE has suggested the franchise might find its way to the PlayStation 3.

Now don't go thinking this is another one of those depressing economic news - it's not. It's just your average depressing video game convention news, like E3. A press release just went out announcing that this year's Leipzig Games Convention has been canceled, but they will be holding a new event in its place called Games Convention Online.

As the attorney general of South Australia, Michael Atkinson has been one of the most rabid critics against the introduction of an R18+ classification in Australia. This has made him a frequent target for Aussie gamers. GameSpot recently had a chance to ask Mr. Atkinson why he's so against the R18+ rating. Check out Mr. Atkinson's point of view after the jump.

I've always been pretty hesitant with Free Realms - I can' t get past the whole "it looks too kiddie" factor - but seeing this dev interview is giving me second thoughts. It's free-to-play, it's on the PC and one of the PS3's very first MMORPGs, and overall, the concept sounds pretty fun. For sure, it's not a game for everyone, but hey - if you've got 30 or 40-something year-olds playing Neopets, then that shouldn't be all that bad.

Even as Namco Bandai tried to salvage the little that was left of Hellgate: London, it will still be closing down on the 31st of this month, sadly. However, not all is lost forever as HanbitSoft, Korean publisher and developer, reassured that it will remain to be a free-to-play game.

Bannination is at hand in the land of Final Fantasy XI Online, people! According to a news bulletin posted at the game's official site, an issue allowing players to create multiple items for particular treasures and rewards in areas like Salvage and Assault were discovered on November of last year by the team. The consequence: permanently banned.

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.