Chinese publisher Tencent has helped indie game PlayerUnkonown'sBattlegrounds and the Chinese authorities in cracking down on cheat-makers for the title.
Tencent has, according to Bloomberg, aided Chinese authorities in uncovering over 30 different "cheat-maker" rings in China, leading to over 120 individual arrests. Cheat-makers are coders selling software that allows players to cheat in PUBG.
The report noted that these cheat-makers were using the leaderboards of PUBG as a way to advertise their own cheating devices. Apparently, eight out of the top ten players in PUBG were tied to cheat-making advertisements, selling cheats for various prices, including one reported amount of 100￥, or $15. Cheat-makers would also encourage players not to abuse the cheating devices, advising them to "maintain control and keep your kills within 15 people per game." according to the report.
The names would contain QQ numbers, which is a chat service in China owned by Tencent.
PUBG has not yet been published in China, yet the amount of cheat-makers coming from China has made up the vast majority of the players who have been banned from PUBG anti-cheat software, Battleye. Since last year, over 1.5 million people, the majority of them Chinese, have been banned from the game.
PUBG has been a massive hit in the online market, netting over 30 million units sold last year on PC alone and an additional 3 million players found on the Xbox One. The issues with cheating, however, have been a long-standing problem for the game, to the point where Brendan Greene, the mind behind PUBG, has issued a hard stance against anyone caught cheating in the title.
"If you’re caught cheating or using any third-party tool that gives you an advantage we ban you straight away, permanent ban, no appeal.” stated Greene in an interview with Eurogamer.
PUBG Corp., formed by the games publisher Bluehole to handle all future business dealings with PUBG, made a partnership with Tencent to bring the game officially to China later this year. PUBG Corp. has stated that their partnership with Tencent will help curb future cheating from the game after PUBG was approved by the Chinese Government so long as the game is altered to represent China's "core socialist values."
What are your thoughts on all of this? Is it good that Tencent and PUBG Corp. are cracking down on cheaters? Leave your comments below.
