BlockBlasters Delisted From Steam After a Patch Spreads Malware to Hundreds and Steals $150,000 of Cryptocurrency

Downloading games from Steam is almost always a safe experience. Games have to go through a verifying system that ensures that no malicious games make it through to become publicly buyable.

Until a game called BlockBlasters, developed and published by a studio called Genesis Interactive, was uploaded to Steam on July 30th. The release of the game didn't seem problematic, but it wasn't until a patch hit on August 30th hit, that contained malware infected a few hundred users and is reported to have stolen $150,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

Notably, Raivo Plavnieks or RastalandTV, a Latvian streamer was raising money for cancer treatment after being diagnosed with stage 4 sarcoma on May 7th of this year. While streaming on September 21st, he ended up losing $32,000 of the money he had acquired for his treatment, and subsequently uploaded a Tweet of his reaction to the incident.

Since the patch, Valve has delisted the game from its platform. It's unclear what action or statement they will make (if any) in response, but for the time being, if you happened to have downloaded the game, perform a virus check on your computer immediately. If you know someone else who downloaded the game, inform them of what happened and tell them to also perform a virus check.