A recently released Steam game turned out to contain malware, forcing affected players to consider drastic security measures. This was first reported by Reddit user HelloitsWojan, who shared a screenshot of the email warning from Steam. It states that the game’s developer account uploaded suspected malicious builds, potentially compromising players’ systems. Valve has since removed the title, but the damage may already be done.
Said game is called PirateFi, and was developed by Seaworth Interactive and launched on February 6, 2025. The game seemed to be an ‘asset flip,’ where the developer bought assets like character models from various sources and used them as is. According to SteamDB, it only peaked at five active players before being deleted, and Sea Worth Interactive has not made any other games.
Valve removed it two days ago, but those who launched the game have been urged to take immediate action. Steam has sent emails warning affected users to run a full system antivirus scan. In more severe cases, Valve suggests fully reformatting the operating system to ensure no malicious software remains.
Another Reddit user Worth_Plastic5684 who claimed to work in the ‘information security’ industry agrees with the suggestion.
“I am touched that people have so much faith in our [anti-virus] tools that they trust them to fix an actual incident after the fact on their own, but sadly we don’t live in a world that allows such magic. If you have been impacted by this, reinstall your OS and change every password that you have kept, or typed, on the machine while it was infected,” he wrote.
Nevertheless, this isn’t the first time a game on Steam ended up containing malware. In 2015, a bad actor copied Octopus City Blues, a real game that wasn’t on Steam and tricked players into downloading a malicious file instead. More recently, in 2023, NanoWar: Cells VS Virus was infected with malware after its developer’s Steam account was hijacked.
These incidents highlight ongoing security concerns with Steam’s game submission process. There is an argument to be made about how Valve cannot simply curate every game released on the digital storefront. As the company claimed that Steam received at least 40 submissions every day. However, on the other hand, the fact that it allows people to just upload content with the minimum amount of scrutiny is a problem in itself.
