PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has a cheating problem, not completely unlike its fellow Battle Royale game Fortnite. And like Fortnite, the developers, PUBG Corp, are taking the problem very seriously. So seriously that PUBG Corp has confirmed it’s are working with local law enforcement to make arrests in China.
Rumors of multiple arrests leaked out of China earlier this year when police picked up over a 100 individuals on 30 different cases, all having something to do with cheating behavior that went against PUBG’s terms and conditions. However, these numbers were never officially confirmed by the developers.
But now PUBG Corp has formally announced the arrest of 15 individuals by Chinese authorities. The authorities contacted PUBG Corp with the following information: “15 major suspects including “OMG”, and “FL” were arrested for developing hack programs, hosting marketplaces for hack programs, and brokering transactions. Currently, the suspects have been fined approximately 30mil RNB ($5.1mil USD).”
The hackers were charged due to the development and sale of hacking/cheating programs, affecting PUBG in a way that put other players at a disadvantage. Yet, not all of these programs were considered safe, with some including malicious code (such as Trojan horse software) that was used to steal user information.
In their announcement, PUBG Corp said “the longstanding rumor that hacking/cheating programs extract information from users’ PCs has been confirmed to be true.” They continued, “using illegal programs not only disrupts others, but can end up with you handing over your personal information. We’ll continue to crack down on hacking/cheating programs (and their creators) until our players are free to battle it out in a totally fair environment.”
Big words from PUBG Corp, but at least they’ve proven they are willing to invest themselves into taking serious action against those who would abuse their game. But will it be enough to stop cheaters altogether?
