Soldier of Fortune compatibility mod taken offline after alleged Activision request

SoFplus, a compatibility mod for Raven Software’s gory 2000 shooter Soldier of Fortune, has disabled downloads and taken its website offline in the wake of what the creator says is "a request to remove or block access to SoFplus files" from Activision, as picked up on Reddit

Released 14 years ago, the SoFplus mod’s primary purpose is to resolve a number of bugs in Soldier of Fortune version 1.07f. As explained on a cached version of the SoFplus website, “An unpatched SoF has a number of vulnerabilities that allow a remote attacker to take over your PC. SoFplus blocks all known exploits. Without SoFplus, your SoF server or client can be crashed or hacked. It’s even possible to take over your entire PC.”

That’s a nasty-sounding old bug. In addition to this, SoFplus adds a number of compatibility features for modern machines. This includes widescreen video mode support, additional menus to configure settings, default enabling of console, and several others.

Yesterday, the admin of the SoFplus website posted this: “After over 14 years, Activision has sent a request to remove or block access to SoFplus files. The request also asked for removal of files that don't contain Activision materials, so something may be wrong with their automated scanning tool.”

The SoFplus admin posits that the reason for the takedown request is because Soldier of Fortune has just been released on GOG. Specifically, Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition was listed on the site on the first of October, as were Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix, and Soldier of Fortune: Payback, the third game in the series. The alleged request from Activision came just two days after the games were released on the platform.

The SoFplus admin has contacted Activision for information on how the issue might be resolved so that the SoFplus website can go back online. We’ve also requested comment. You can still visit the cached SoFplus website, but all the download links for SoFplus itself have been disabled until further notice.

Contributor

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

Latest in FPS
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Ogryn
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide adds a psychic horde murderzone mode and makes Ogryns even smashier
Starfield's companion robot giving a thumbs-up
Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
A crew of prospectors in Wildgate, featuring a robot, a rabbit man, and a small aquatic creature in a combination mech/aquarium.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
Team Fortress Spy being shocked
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
Fragpunk
Somebody finally figured out casual Counter-Strike
Latest in News
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway