Bad Piggies game on Chrome Web Store installs adware

After the relatively recent release of Rovio’s latest game – Bad Piggies – there seems to be an attempt to take advantage of the hype surrounding the game. According to Eurogamer, Bad Piggies and a few other games on the Chrome Web Store were not made or published by Rovio, but by www.playhook.info, a suspicious developer of ‘free flash games’.

Attempting to install games by the developer requires you to download and install plug-ins that ask for permission to “access your data on all websites”. Doing so inserts new ads into websites such as Yahoo, IMDB, eBay, and MSN. The game is also confirmed to not be Bad Piggies. Another finding is that allowing the plug-ins leaves the browser vulnerable to hijacking, and lets the author of the plug-ins retrieve important information such as your credit card number and passwords. According to reports, over 82,000 people have fallen victim to the malicious app, with the number increasing by 13,000 per day.

Taking the meaning of ‘bad’ to a whole new level

The actual Bad Piggies game by Rovio was launched at the end of September. The game, launched for iOS, Android, Mac, and PC, is a spin-off to the Angry Birds games, and is told from the pigs’ point of view.

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“We’ve never done anything like this,” said Petri Järvilehto, EVP of Games. “Where Angry Birds was all about destruction, Bad Piggies is all about the joy of construction. It’s not just about getting three stars – in this game, failing is almost as much fun as succeeding!”

The game is set on Piggy Island, where the Bad Piggies are after the eggs again – but as usual, nothing is going according to the plan. They need help in creating the ultimate flying machine and steering it safely to their destination.

According to a statement by Rovio, with more than 60 levels, and free updates in the offing, the game takes you through hours of pig-crashing, exploding, and flying fun. Fans can unlock an additional 30 levels by getting three stars. Four sandbox levels let them stretch their creativity to the utmost. 33 objects are available to create the ultimate machine – if you can navigate around all the obstacles first.

Rovio has seen massive success with the series. The first game debuted for iOS devices in 2009 for $0.99, with the Android release shortly after, which was free and ad-supported. When the game was in development, the folks at Rovio liked the idea of building wingless and legless birds. To choose an enemy for the birds, they thought pigs were appropriate as the swine flu epidemic was in the news at the time. Rovio partnered with Chillingo to publish the first Angry Birds app to the iOS App Store. After that, Rovio self-published all its Angry Birds titles with the exception of the PlayStation Portable version of the game, which was published under the production of Abstraction Games and distributed by Chillingo.