Path of Exile’s developers have seemingly been hacked in a way that directly impacts players, and many are worried about the game’s security issues as a result.
Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile maintains a loyal fanbase more than a decade removed from its release. While Path of Exile 2 remains in development, devs have regularly injected the first game with new content and patches. The sequel reportedly would have been an expansion until the team decided in 2023 to turn it into a standalone game.
One of the biggest appeals that Path of Exile offers is being an alternative to iconic hack-and-slash RPGs like the embattled Diablo series. After the swathe of controversies Diablo 4 faced upon its release, many former Diablo fans have shifted to the upstart dark fantasy RPG. However, a recent attack left fans questioning if Path of Exile is a safe game to play.
Was Path of Exile hacked on Steam?
Path of Exile’s Steam page contained a news post with a phishing link before devs took it down.
The deleted post masqueraded as a Path of Exile 2 Beta sign-up page. Considering the fan excitement over the sequel and the fact that the link was posted on official channels, an unknown number of players have likely had account information stolen.
Those who clicked on the post would be well-served taking the usual precautions, including changing passwords on their Steam account, their Path of Exile profile, and any applicable email addresses. While Steam has two-factor authentication, the Path of Exile client does not. The lack of 2FA for the latter has sparked discourse within the Path of Exile fandom, and was a notable point of discussion even before this major security breach.
Path of Exile has an unfortunate track record when it comes to hacks
The game recently experienced a string of account hacks that left fans outraged.
Hackers compromised Path of Exile streamer Jungroan “Jungroan” Lin’s account in December 2023. Upon checking his account, he found that all of his items were stolen. Multiple people also reported compromised accounts on social media throughout most of 2023.
Fans have asked the studio to add two-factor authentication support for years, but it still hasn’t arrived. Those who started playing Path of Exile before its move to Steam, or who prefer signing in from the official client, are particularly vulnerable to malicious attacks. Players hope this recent string of hacks push the Path of Exile team to prioritize security in a future update.
Path of Exile isn’t the only game to see this happen, and it’s not the scariest security breach on Steam. In 2023, a developer’s Steam account was hacked which allowed bad actors to ship malware directly to players as a patch for their game.