In early 2025, a Last Fantasy 14 mod sparked “stalking” fears amid studies it was capable of scrape hidden participant knowledge, together with particulars like character data, retainer data, any alternate characters linked to a Sq. Enix account, and far more.
The mod, named “Playerscope,” permits customers to trace particular participant knowledge of anybody within the neighborhood of the particular person utilizing it. This data is then despatched to a centralized database managed by the mod creator (irrespective of in case you are a particular participant, or simply occur to be round different gamers), and tracks data that gamers would often not be permitted to see through in-game instruments.
Particularly, the mod affords data on “Content material ID” and “Account ID,” which can be utilized to trace gamers throughout characters. This was executed by manipulating the Content material ID system launched within the Dawntrail growth, which in flip let gamers blacklist others throughout their service account and a number of characters.
The one solution to stop your account knowledge being scraped by the device is to affix the personal Discord channel for Playerscope and decide out. Theoretically, each single Last Fantasy 14 participant who will not be within the Discord channel is having their knowledge scraped. Clearly it is a important privateness danger, and the group has been vocal in its response: “the aim is apparent, to stalk individuals” one commenter famous on Reddit.
A number of weeks in the past the mod creator posted on Discord that the plugin was discovered on Github, which led to an explosion in recognition. Resulting from phrases of service violations, Playerscope has now been faraway from Github, however it was allegedly mirrored on related web sites Gittea and Gitflic. IGN has verified {that a} Playerscope repository not exists on both various platform. Theoretically, the mod may additionally nonetheless be circulating in personal communities.
Last Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki ‘Yoshi-P’ Yoshida has now issued a press release on Last Fantasy 14’s official discussion board relating to third-party mods, clearly referencing the emergence of Playerscope. The assertion reads:
“We’ve confirmed that there exist third-party instruments which might be getting used to test Last Fantasy 14 character data that isn’t displayed throughout regular sport play. The device is getting used to show a section of an Last Fantasy 14 character’s inside account ID, which is then utilized in an try to additional correlate data on different characters on the identical Last Fantasy 14 service account.
“The Growth and Operations groups are conscious of the state of affairs and the considerations being raised by the group and are discussing the next choices:
Requesting that the device in query be eliminated and deleted.Pursuing authorized motion.
“Apart from character data that may be checked in-game and on the Lodestone, we’ve obtained considerations that non-public data registered on a person’s Sq. Enix account, resembling handle and cost data, is also uncovered with this device. Please relaxation assured that it isn’t doable to entry this data utilizing these third-party instruments.
“We try to supply and keep a protected surroundings for our gamers, which is why we ask everybody to chorus from utilizing third-party instruments. We additionally ask that gamers don’t share details about third-party instruments resembling particulars about their set up strategies, or take some other actions to help of their dissemination.
“Using third-party instruments is prohibited by the Last Fantasy 14 Person Settlement and their utilization may threaten the protection of gamers. We are going to proceed to take a agency stance towards their utilization.”
Whereas the usage of third-party instruments is prohibited in Last Fantasy 14, the likes of Superior Fight Tracker is often utilized by the sport’s raiding group and cross-referenced utilizing web sites like FFlogs. Yoshida’s authorized risk, nevertheless, is a major step up in rhetoric.
The FF14 group responds
The Last Fantasy 14 group has responded to Yoshida’s assertion in damning style. One person mentioned: “fixing the sport to interrupt the mod isn’t on the listing of choices they’re contemplating I see.”
One other participant added: “or you can simply see how to not expose the knowledge on [the player’s] shopper aspect. Ofc this implies further work which they didn’t plan for, however is Last Fantasy 14 actually on such a good schedule and finances they cannot take care of these items correctly?”
“Form of a disappointing assertion that basically fails to acknowledge the foundation reason behind the issue,” one other particular person mentioned.
The creator of Playerscope has but to reply.
Photograph by Olly Curtis/Future Publishing through Getty Pictures.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
