Summary
On February 6, developer Seaworth Interactive released a game on Steam called PirateFi. While it might look like any other quick and dirty survival sim knockoff at first glance, it quickly became apparent that it housed Malware, so Valve removed the game from its storefront entirely and issued a warning to those who downloaded it.
As shared by u/HelloitsWojan on the Steam subreddit, the message reads as follows:
“The Steam account of the developer for this game uploads builds to Steam that contained suspected malware. The builds containing the suspected malware have been removed from Steam, but we strongly encourage you to run a full-system scan using an antivirus product that you trust or use regularly, and inspect your system for unexpected or newly installed software. You may also consider fully reformatting your operating system to ensure that no malicious software remains on your machine.”
Reddit users also recommend reinstalling your OS system if you installed PirateFi.
Luckily, Not Many People Played It
PirateFi might have been free-to-play, but it doesn’t appear to have drawn much of an audience before being delisted. As we can see onSteamDB, it only had 165 followers and a peak player count of just five. However,Video Game Insightsestimates that it ‘sold’ 1,530 units, whileGamalyticbelieves that around 859 people downloaded it.
As you can see in the screenshots embedded above, it doesn’t immediately scream ‘malware game’, just generic survival sim. It features all the hallmarks, if executed a little cheaply, like farming, online multiplayer,Rust-stylebase building, resource gathering, and an open island map. Its review score wasn’t half bad either, sitting at 88 percent positive, which was no doubt spurred on by the fact that it didn’t cost players a cent.
You can alsoview and download the trailer here, if you’re interested.
Yet bizarrely, the first mention of it on Steam was just 21 days ago, and its developer has no social media presence. That’s a pretty glaring red flag. Thankfully, it was taken down in mere days.
