Final Fantasy 14 Director Yoshi-P Threatens Legal Action Against 'Stalking' Mod

In early 2025, a Final Fantasy XIV mod ignited concerns about player stalking due to reports of its ability to harvest sensitive player data. This included character details, retainer information, linked alternate characters, and more.

The mod, "Playerscope," tracked players' data within a certain radius, sending this information to a central database managed by the mod's creator. This included access to "Content ID" and "Account ID," enabling cross-character tracking, exploiting the Dawntrail expansion's Content ID system designed for account-wide blacklisting.

Opting out required joining the Playerscope Discord server. Essentially, any player outside this server was potentially having their data scraped, raising significant privacy issues. Community reaction was swift and critical, with many calling out the mod's obvious intent to stalk players.

Following its discovery on Github, Playerscope's popularity surged before its removal due to Terms of Service violations. Although mirrored on Gittea and Gitflic, IGN verified the mod's absence from these platforms. However, private distribution remains a possibility.

Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida, producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV, addressed the situation on the game's official forum, referencing Playerscope directly. He confirmed the existence of third-party tools accessing non-public character information, including internal account IDs used to link multiple characters on the same service account.

Yoshida stated the development team was exploring options, including requesting the mod's removal and pursuing legal action. He reassured players that the tool couldn't access sensitive Square Enix account data like addresses and payment information. He reiterated the prohibition of third-party tools in the User Agreement and urged players not to share information facilitating their use.

While tools like Advanced Combat Tracker are commonly used by the raiding community, Yoshida's legal threat represents a significant escalation.

Community Response:

The FFXIV community's response to Yoshida's statement was largely negative. Players criticized the lack of focus on addressing the root cause of the vulnerability, suggesting the game's client-side data exposure needed to be fixed. The Playerscope author has yet to comment.