If you were hunting for deals during the Steam autumn sale, you might have been disappointed, as several games disappeared without warning. The culprit was a serious security vulnerability in the Unity game engine, announced on Friday evening by the company behind the popular framework. The flaw, which affects all productions created with Unity since 2017, sparked chaos in the Steam Store.
Unity: Microsoft and Others Remove Games from the Steam Store
Unity Technologies has advised developers to provide appropriate security updates. Some studios have already complied, while others are swamped. Obsidian, a Microsoft-owned studio, for example, pulled the plug and temporarily removed numerous of their own titles from Steam.
If you wanted to grab Pentiment during the sale right now, you can’t. The exciting adventure is currently not available for purchase. The same applies to Wasteland 3, which also displays the glowing orange “no longer available in the Steam store” message.
This disruption is expected to be only temporary, as teams are actively working on a hotfix to address the security vulnerability. One small indie studio, however, has been particularly impacted — the Unity patch is causing major issues just two weeks before their planned release.
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No Need to Worry
If you have Unity-based games installed, it’s best to avoid launching them for now. In theory, the security vulnerability could allow attackers to execute malicious code on your system. That said, the situation is more complex than it seems.
Firstly, an attacker would need existing malware already present on your system to exploit the vulnerability. Secondly, Microsoft has updated Windows Defender to detect programs attempting to take advantage of the Unity bug. Additionally, Steam has implemented initial measures to safeguard players.
There’s no need to panic or permanently remove all Unity-based games from your devices just yet. That said, staying cautious is still a good idea. On a brighter note, without involving this engine, you can currently grab one of 2023’s best-selling games at a discount on Steam.
Source: Unity, Steam, Twitter / @Obsidian, @Ravenlore_stu
This article was translated with the help of AI and carefully reviewed by our editorial team.