Part of me wonders if this is just clickbait.  $500?!?

Gamers targeted by ransomware virus

Older games such as Warcraft 3 are also targeted by the malicious program

Gamers are being targeted by a computer virus that stops them playing their favourite titles unless they pay a ransom.

On infected machines, the malicious program seeks out saved games and other files and encrypts them.

A key to unlock encrypted files is only supplied if victims pay at least $500 (£340) in Bitcoins.

The malware targets 40 separate games including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Minecraft and World of Tanks.

Dark web cash

The malicious program looks similar to the much more widely distributed Cryptolocker ransomware that has caught out thousands of people over the last couple of years.

But analysis of the malware, called Teslacrypt, reveals that it shares no code with Cryptolocker and appears to be have been created by a different cybercrime group.

Researcher Vadim Kotov from security firm Bromium said the file was catching people out via a website its creators had managed to compromise. The site involved is a Wordpress blog that is inadvertently hosting a file that abuses a loophole in Flash to infect visitors.

One a machine is infected, wrote Mr Kotov, the malware looks for 185 different file extensions. In particular, it seeks out files associated with many popular video games and online services such as Steam that give people access to them.

"Interestingly, although these are all popular games, none of them matches any particular 'Top Sellers' or 'Most Played' chart, " said Mr Kotov. "They could just be games the developer loves to play."

Files holding gamers' profiles, maps, saves and modified versions of games are all sought by Teslacrypt, he said.

He said anyone who tries to outwit the malware by uninstalling a game they obtained via an online service may end up disappointed.

"Often it's not possible to restore this kind of data even after re-installing a game via Steam," he wrote.

Once target files are encrypted the malware pops up a window telling victims they have a few days to pay up and retrieve their data.

To decrypt, victims can either pay $500 in Bitcoins or $1,000 in Paypal My Cash payment cards. The virus tells victims to send payment details to an address located on the Tor anonymous browsing network.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31869589

One more reason for cloud saves.

do they take accept payment in kind? My body is ready..

No, just two kinds. 

But if you have extra money just lying around annoying you, I would be happy to help you out and take it off your hands.  

See these people, they aren't dealt with swiftly enough, we still get people trying to find new ways to piss off gamers or hold others stuff for random money, they should be hunted down for a start, smacked or maced to high hell and thrown in jail for a good 40 years if not longer and have their tech privs revoked so they can enjoy the feeling that they will be old aged and without being able to use new/modern tech because they abused what they took for granted, others will learn from this, if they don't you simply up the punishment more and more until people learn to fear being complete dickbags and wanting to go out of their way to steal peoples money/stuff for random.

Either way it isn't right and there clearly isn't enough punishment gone around to make people fearful of trying shit like this.

it;s times like this I wish Judge Dredd was a thing because then there would be instant judgement passed and fear spread, you have nothing to fear as long as you do not commit the crime, shouldn't have anything to be afraid of as long as you don't pull shit like this because this is wrong on so many levels.

is this one more reason not to go digital in the future ?

No, the save games of digital games on Steam/Origin/uPlay have much higher chances to be restorable than retail games which don't use cloud saving.

No save would be worth that much to me

Its savegames now but surely this will lead to powerpoints, docx, excel or any other important business files being held for ransom.. I would be helpless if my photoshop, indesign and other work files would be held for ransom..