Update: According to Crystal Dynamics, the issue has now been fixed and players playing Marvel's Avengers on PS5 can safely stream the game.

Original article [The 1.8.0 patch released today appears to be causing the IP addresses of players of Marvel's Avengers on PlayStation 5 to be exposed to viewers.

Shortly after the patch was released, Crystal Dynamics announced that it was investigating the issue of "floating strings" appearing on players' screens. Almost an hour later, the studio asked users to "refrain from streaming for the time being if you are experiencing this issue."

Crystal Dynamics did not specify what the text in question was, but several Twitter users did: it was an IP address belonging to a streamer. Needless to say, they were not happy about it. Forbes confirmed the claim that "Marvel's Avengers" actually displays the IP address at the bottom of the player's screen.

The publication of IP addresses is a serious invasion of privacy; as stated in the VPN User's Guide, a PC's IP address "is a digital fingerprint that identifies you on the Internet."

IP addresses can be used as a target for DDoS attacks or to track your physical location. . and can be used to track your physical location, a potentially serious problem now that streamers face threats and swatting on a regular basis.

Hours after the initial tweet, Crystal Dynamics confirmed that "Marvel's Avengers" was exposing personal information, including IP addresses, but clarified that it appears to be occurring only on the PlayStation 5 version of the game. It is expected to be fixed tomorrow.

We tested Marvel's Avengers on Steam and found no issues, so those playing on PC should be fine; we have contacted Crystal Dynamics for more information on this issue and will update if we hear back.