Homeless Land 4 was officially launched on 12 September, and although the top online player record of the series was created, its distribution was not smooth. Following extensive criticism of the PC-end optimization in Steam, the player has recently been accused of having built up the monitoring software, and the continued fermentation of public opinion has forced the issuer Take-Two Interactive to issue a rapid official statement denying it.
The focus of the controversy was on the anti-deception system in the game, with players alleging that the program would be revised to collect player data. At the same time, the updated service provisions of Landless Land 4 are also considered evidence of “monitored players”, in response to which Take-Two issued a statement in Steam, which stressed: “The company will never use spy software in its games, and privacy policy applies to all end platforms, including hosts, PCs, mobile applications and websites, although the policy specifies the types of data that may be collected, but this does not mean that each game or service collects all the data listed.”
The company acknowledged that it would collect user information for “services to players”, including individualized settings and compatible configurations, but stressed that these provisions were made transparent in service agreements. According to PC Gamer, this wave originated “from a misleading YouTube video that triggered a wave of blackmail by players in Reddit and the Forum, as well as short-term Steam miscalculation bombings that failed to have a substantial impact”.
In May this year, negative evaluations of the landless series began to surge on Steam. In their assessments, the players identified several problems, including the ban on the use of modules (mods), the modification and the use of VPN by EULA. However, the main controversy repeatedly mentioned in the social media was the fear among players that Take-Two, 2K Games and Gearbox were collecting data and private information.
Players question whether the issuer is entitled to refund if the service provision is so easily modified by the developer if it is not pure for a game that has been sold for nearly 13 years. Other players emphasize that Land without Homes is a game of relative leisure, one-person and cooperative experiences. In the absence of a substantial competitive multi-player model, there is no reason why Take-Two should fear that the cheater will influence the experience of ordinary ” landless ” players.
The official response was largely consistent with the social media response last week by Randy Pitchford, the developer of Homeless Land, Gearbox, which was updated to “uplift the player experience” and “endeavour global data protection regulations without spy software”. According to 2K Games, the data collected is mainly used to optimize game performance, individualized recommendations and advertising, and the player can opt out of partial data sharing by setting. At the same time, the company stated that the service provision was being updated to track down “bad models of intellectual property violations”, and that individual non-commercial models were still allowed to circulate freely among players.
Land without Owners 4 was launched on 12 September and is on platform PC, PS5 and XSX/S. As the latest in a scavenger-shooting series, Steam had over 300,000 online players at one time, but currently only 36 per cent of Steam’s ratings were mostly poor.
