Developers of Popular Steam Game with 300,000+ Reviews React to Malicious Mod Deleting Player Data

The creators of People Playground, a quirky and gory sandbox game with over 300,000 reviews on Steam, have issued an urgent alert for players to update the game immediately and remove all mods. This warning comes after a “malicious add-on” began infecting other mods within the game’s Steam Workshop.

An “Urgent PSA” was shared on People Playground’s official Steam News Hub on February 1, followed by a patch released shortly after. All Workshop functions, mods, and access to the Workshop page were promptly disabled, but not before the malware affected some users.

Several players commented on the Steam post, reporting that their achievements, save files, and Contraptions folders (which store custom creations) have been wiped clean. The developers clarified that while the virus does not harm your computer, it is designed to disrupt or destroy certain functionalities of People Playground.

Players who have downloaded any mods from the Workshop are strongly advised to clear their entire mod lists, even if they haven’t downloaded the malicious add-on. This is due to the fact that the add-on “replaces [mods] with itself,” and has reportedly taken over several other mods in the Workshop.

The malicious mod also managed to infiltrate the top-rated section of People Playground’s Workshop, which likely contributed to its rapid spread among users, as it was uploaded on January 30.

Sadly, this isn’t the first instance of a Steam Workshop mod causing issues for players. In February 2022, multiple mods for Cities: Skylines were removed after reports surfaced that they contained keyloggers and bitcoin mining software. More recently, in December 2023, the popular mod Downfall for Slay the Spire experienced a “security breach” that infected users’ machines with malware aimed at stealing passwords through web browsers.