[1] Overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook–Cambridge_Analytica_d...

[2] Documentary: "The Great Hack" (2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4736550/

just a note for inattentive readers: Outer Wilds from GP's comment is a very different game compared to Outer Worlds which the parent comment mentions. (it doesn't help that they were both released in the same year, 2019)

Outer Wilds: action-adventure, open world mystery game with puzzles

Outer Worlds: action role-playing game, open world first-person-shooter (similar to the Fallout games)

I get them confused all the time and you'd be in for a ride if you got Outer Wilds while expecting Outer Worlds, but the (G)GP actually mentioned both of them.

I mentioned both in my comment. I spaced them out in my list on purpose although perhaps that contributed to confusion.

There indeed entirely distinct games, but you can make a case that both fall into the AA category.

> suddenly has a requirement

I think players were already asked to link their accounts since the game's release, but it was optional (in the sense that you could easily skip that step).

also, for further context, here's the official announcement that sparked this whole thing: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/553850/view/41968685...

It was also broken at launch and was made optional.

> the player count did not take any obvious hit

> on steam the delisting seems to have affected almost no active players

in most cases, if you bought a game on steam before it got delisted, you can still play it. even if you uninstalled it in between, you can re-download it.

the actual impact won't be fully visible until May 30th or June 4th since that's when they will start blocking access to the game for players who didn't link their accounts[1].

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/553850/view/41968685...