Once Human reaches 140,000 simultaneous players on Steam, but people still warn against installing it

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Kevin
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The shooter Once Human is currently one of the most-played titles on Steam. However, there is clear criticism in the reviews

The open-world game Once Human was released on Steam this week and has become one of the most-played titles on the platform in just a few days. Almost 150,000 players were online at the same time, and the numbers seem to be on the rise.

The situation is a little less clear in the Steam ratings for Once Human. The multiplayer shooter currently only has aBalanced, with a total of 62 percent of theapproximately 13,000 reviewsbeing positive. Hidden behind the negative reviews is one controversial point of criticism in particular.

Data protection concerns are on the rise

While some negative reviews also criticize gameplay elements, the most common accusation is that Once Human wants to retrieve some of the players’ sensitive personal data&nbsp. Many reviews therefore warn against installing the game

The reason for this concern is usually the information in the general terms and conditions. The publisher NetEase allegedly wants to use these to obtain consent to collect a large amount of personal data. Onereviewstates that:

Data such as postal address, physical characteristics or description, protected characteristics such as ethnicity or gender, browsing history, occupation and profile pictures [collected].

Furthermore, there is criticism that the installation of Once Human also installs several programs that start automatically when the computer boots up. Some players fear that these programs are also intended to collect data undetected

Exaggerated worries?

On the other hand, the warnings about Once Human itself are clearly criticized.Other players consider the concerns to be completely exaggerated They argue that the consents demanded by Once Human are perfectly normal for online games

Many of the details in the terms and conditions would also only result from regional requirements. In some countries, for example, you have to provide ID data in order to play online games. In the meantime, the developers themselves have also commented on the discussion.On Twitterthey write:

Once Human takes the data security of its users very seriously. […] We only use your data lawfully and reasonably and in accordance with local legal requirements, while practicing data protection principles such as data minimization, purpose limitation and transparency.