Some accounts from the popular game appear to have been compromised, but it’s unclear for now whether all players should worry

Microsoft’s Xbox Live service has regularly been a target for hackers, but now another of its gaming brands may be under attack: Minecraft.

According to German publication Heise, email addresses and passwords of more than 1,800 Minecraft accounts have been published online in plain-text format, although it remains unclear how they were obtained.

As its report notes, the details would allow strangers to log in to each of those user’s accounts on Minecraft to play online, and download the game to their own computers.

However, the more serious implication would be for any players who had used the same email address and password combination for other online services, from shopping and banking to email and social networking.

1,800 accounts is a fraction of the overall Minecraft population. The game has more than 100 million registered accounts for its PC version alone.

On the one hand, this means 1,800 accounts is an extremely minor breach. On the other, if it turns out to be the tip of an iceberg of compromised player data, it will be a serious problem for Minecraft’s developer Mojang and its parent company Microsoft.

“There’s no guarantee that whoever gained access to them hasn’t got a whole lot more in their back pocket which they haven’t chosen to release to the rest of the world,” wrote online security expert Graham Cluley in his reaction to Heise’s report.

“There is no mention of the security breach on Minecraft’s homepage, but my recommendation would be that if users have any concern that their accounts might be exposed to hackers that they should change their passwords immediately. It goes without saying that they should be particularly concerned if they are using the same password anywhere else on the web.”

As Cluley noted, Mojang has already provided players with advice on how to choose a strong password for Minecraft. Even for players who aren’t worried about Heise’s story may wish to read that post and consider changing their password.

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