This story has been circulating message boards and gaming industry sites for the past few hours -- Zapak Digital Entertainment, an India-based online gaming portal similar to Pogo or Miniclip, is supposedly set to buy out Sony Online Entertainment, American developer and publisher of Star Wars Galaxies and the Everquest series, for about $300 million sometime in the next few days. It's part of Zapak's plan to "expand [their] reach in the global market," and will hopefully give the company the momentum it needs to make an impact on the gaming scene in China, their next big goal.

Something about this story just doesn't sit right with us enough to report it as fact just yet. Maybe it's the source -- The Economic Times, the Indian online newspaper which broke the story, does not name any of its sources in its article, which has a number of unattributed quotes. This could just mean that they're breaking the story earlier than Zapak or SOE would have liked, and they're protecting their source, most likely an employee for one of the companies -- but it's enough to raise a skeptical eyebrow. Still, it wouldn't be the first completely surprising business deal that went down this month.

(Thanks, Zak.)

Update: Our sneaking suspicion that the story was false was apparently correct -- SOE CEO John Smedley told sister site Massively that the rumours are completely false; Reuters also confirms with a report that a SOE spokesperson recently spoke to them on the telephone and completely denied the Zapak buyout. SOE is currently talking to various companies in India to try to bring their games to the country, but in no way is Zapak buying them.

(Thanks, Ashe, for bringing this to our attention in such an expeditious manner.)

The MMO genre has come a long way in a very short time, but it's still important to look back at the events which brought us to where we are today. Michael Zenke over at Massively responds to MMOCrunch's list of MMO's most memorable event by citing what he feels to be its most influential, from the high points (Toyota's World of Warcraft commercial), to the lowest (the spontaneous and unannounced addition of New Game Enhancements to Star Wars Galaxies).

Were there any obvious milestones in MMO history overlooked in these articles? Were you there when Lord British was assassinated in Ultima Online? Were you or someone you love affected by the Corrupted Blood plague of 2005? Let us know in the comments.

If you've been eking out a virtual existence in Star Wars Galaxies, the 2003 Sony MMORPG which thrives just as much on self-destruction as it does on landspeeders and lightsabers, you may wish to check in on your neglected home away from home. If your account is found to have been inactive from 17 April 2006, any of the houses, factories, player associations or harvesters to your name will be scheduled for digital demolition. If you built it, they will come on June 5th to wreck it.

Unfortunately, the Empire is not interested in doubling their efforts to wipe out the last remaining signs of civilization (read: active players). Instead, they'll split the work with you and dole out points, badges and all manner of in-game items in return. Once the vacant buildings have been reduced to nothing, Sony Online Entertainment will have successfully transformed the world into a barren wasteland with the aid of their own subscribers. Some believe that's what they've been doing since the game launched.

[Via Opposable Thumbs]

In a desperate effort to bring back fans, SOE has just announced that the MMO with the mostest, Star Wars Galaxies, will be starting an epic, server-wide event called "The Battle of Restuss" that could "permanently alter the Star Wars universe!" You know, just like SOE permanently drove away tons of subscribers by blind-siding paying customers with a major overhaul.

According to *ahem* the press release, guards will be placed in major empty cities throughout the SWG land. Exciting details ensue:

• Guards will be found in Theed, Mos Eisley, Bestine and Coronet, and will direct players to Restuss, a small city on the planet Rori. There, players who have dedicated their allegiance to the Rebels or the Empire will work together with their fellow faction members to build up their base and arms in preparation for the upcoming conflict.

I bet this is the kind of clutch content that will bring back players by the dozens to this tragedy of a game. I cry for Lucas bathing in his millions.

When Star Wars Galaxies came out, I really wanted to like it. I really did. But, after about an hour or so I found myself asking one question: WTF?

Well, MMORPG.COM reminds us that, three years later, SOE's bastard child is still alive and kicking -- though at this point, half dead and twitching may be more of an appropriate analogy. According to the SWG main site, the devs plan on celebrating this momentous occasion by offering "events, parties, in-game gifts and even a sweepstakes!" Color me non-affected. My only question is if anyone still plays this game after that combat-overhaul brouhaha a few months back. Does anyone here actually still troll around in this virtual snooze-fest or am I the only one still sleeping?

Massively multiplayer game designer and theorist Raph Koster has parted ways with Sony Online Entertainment, after being with them for six years. There's no word on where he is headed yet, although his blog hints that he is "getting interested in doing some stuff that is a bit off the beaten path", a direction SOE isn't quite ready for.

About all that's clear is that it won't involve single player games, but MMO developers had better watch out.