If you happen to point your browser to where the North American Square Enix Online Shop should be ... you won't find it. Or for that matter, the U.K., European and Hong Kong stores. A security breach between Sept. 13 and 18 allowed unauthorized access to a server in Japan that hosted the shop, and non-financial data (that is, names, e-mail addresses, etc.; not credit card info) was compromised for U.S. customers. Shortly after the incident occurred, and as reported on Kotaku (link may not be working for a bit because of Hurricane Sandy), all of the sites — which retailed the Play Arts Kai lines and other physical Square Enix merchandise — were taken offline. They have not come up since.

So what becomes of the Square Enix Shop? According to the posted message, "At this time we have decided to close down the current version of the U.S. SQUARE ENIX ONLINE SHOP. Online merchandise sales will resume, and we will outline the details at a later time." Whether that's something akin to Japan, where the Square Enix Shop was essentially folded into their regular e-Shop, or a complete re-design as the European message indicates, is unclear.

But for the meanwhile, online sales will continue at the usual retailers in North America and Japan, so sales should not be affected. However, it would be wise, as the message states, to monitor your credit cards and report any suspicious activity if you've bought from the store, just as a safeguard. Heck, that's just a good idea in general even when there's no incidents.