There’s a reasonable expectation for privacy that comes with using direct messages, but no should ever count on that. That’s what some players may be discovering now that they’ve learned that Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders was recording and storing their Discord DMs.
According to Insider Gaming, the issue was uncovered by computer engineer Timothy Meadows. He discovered that when Arc Raiders was linked to players’ Discord accounts, it stored their private messages locally on their PCs as well as the Discord tokens needed to access them. If Embark had been intentionally spying on its players, that could have been enough to go through all of their private messages.
Embark has already acknowledged the issue and shared a hotfix to take care of it. On the game’s Discord channel, Embark stated that “excessive user information” had been saved, and the company assured players that their personal info and messages weren’t reviewed or stored outside of their own machines. Embark also disclosed that it will conduct an audit to make sure there are no similar incidents now or in the future.
Arc Raiders has been incredibly successful since its launch late last year, with 14 million copies sold across all platforms and 6 million players active weekly. However, the debut of Marathon may split some of the audience that Arc Raiders has attracted. Marathon even briefly censored “Arc Raiders” in chat during its Server Slam prior to that game’s launch.
Other developments in Arc Raiders have included UFOs spotted in the sky, as well as the ability to add facial hair to players’ characters. Embark also recently took aim at Arc Raiders cheaters who disrupted the in-game economy by using an exploit to duplicate items.