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Gaming Companies Remove Analytics App After Massive User Outcry (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "Several gaming companies have announced plans to remove support for an analytics app they have bundled with their games," reports Bleeping Computer. "The decision to remove the app came after several Reddit and Steam users noticed that many game publishers have recently embedded a controversial analytics SDK (software development kit) part of recent updates to their games. The program bundled with all these games, and at the heart of all the recent controversy, is RedShell, an analytics package provided by Innervate, Inc., to game publishers."
The app is intended to collect information about the source of new game installs, and details about the gamer. Following a massive user outcry in the past two weeks, several game makers have given in to pressure and are removing this SDK. Game makers and games who announced they were removing RedShell include Bethesda (Elder Scrolls), All Total War games, Warhammer games, Magic the Gathering Arena, and more. [This Google Docs spreadsheet and Reddit thread have a list of games containing RedShell.]
The app is intended to collect information about the source of new game installs, and details about the gamer. Following a massive user outcry in the past two weeks, several game makers have given in to pressure and are removing this SDK. Game makers and games who announced they were removing RedShell include Bethesda (Elder Scrolls), All Total War games, Warhammer games, Magic the Gathering Arena, and more. [This Google Docs spreadsheet and Reddit thread have a list of games containing RedShell.]
Not RedShell, but the Unity engine also offers integrated analytics:
https://unity.com/solutions/analytics
Then you install and run that shit during testing. There's no good enough reason to let automated collection of exploitable information continue outside the explicit control of a development environment. "Just trust us, this information won't be misused" is bullshit you'd do well to leave behind.
Yes, that's why I said it would only be used in pre-release version of the game - meaning copies of the game that are distributed only for testing purposes. At least read the post in full before you rant at me.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
If the data is not associated with any personally identifiable information there is no "you" in "your information". This was pre-GDPR but when I did game analytics in the sense of CPU and GPU generation, installed RAM, operating system version I worked closely with the company lawyers to ensure it was all non-personally identifiable information. IP addresses were not recorded, neither were account names or anything else. Just the raw data. The client side of these online games ensured the data was only sent once per "survey" period. I could not have connected the data to a particular person if I wanted to. If a GDPR request came in asking for a particular person's data I would have no such data to report.
You may find GOG treats you with a bit more respect.
I don't really care about any of that sort of hardware profiling. If I want to look at general hardware tends, I just look up the Steam Hardware Survey.
Rather I'm talking about recording and analyzing data-points about the gameplay itself. For instance, I log every significant event as the player goes through the game. The player's location in the world over time, enemies killed, times died, when they switched weapons out, and so on.
The point of all that is to help me to balance the game better. For instance, if I see a huge spike of deaths at the third boss in the game, I know that maybe it's a bit too difficult, and should be toned down a bit, or perhaps I need to telegraph hints about how to beat it more clearly.
And again, this is only really useful in beta versions, while I can still make adjustments to the game's balance before the game's final release.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.