Owlcat Games dropped a patch for their recent game Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous which caused a stir with fans.

The patch updated the game’s End User License Agreement (EULA) to allow them to collect data from players using another back end change added in the same patch which allows them to collect said data.

One of the patch “highlights” bragged about the data collection saying:

• We have implemented a 3rd party service named Appsflyer — an industry standard tracking solution for user acquisition for computer and mobile games. This solution allows developers and publishers to understand which part of players have purchased the game due to the impact of their advertising campaigns. It will help us to define the key metrics of the campaigns and significantly improve our marketing efforts. Though Appsflyer is fully compliant with GDPR and other data processing regulations, we needed to reflect its implementation in the game’s EULA, which resulted in improvements of the paragraph 3.1 of the respective EULA.

The patch notes were later updated to reflect a hotfix which came only a day later, removing the Appsflyer service from the game and allegedly deleting all data that had been collected from Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous for the brief window it was active.

While internet users are accustomed to a certain level of corporate surveillance, it’s usually done with informed consent. While the update to the EULA and patch notes may qualify, it doesn’t change the fact that the sudden collection of data caught consumers off guard.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous has been available for Windows PC (via Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store). In case you missed it, you can find our thorough review for the base Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous game here – we highly recommend it as a faithful adaptation of the tabletop game and a direct improvement over the first game, Pathfinder: Kingmaker (which we also reviewed here).