Just last month we reported that over 1.5 million cheaters have been banned from the popular battle royale title, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). That’s a lot of cheaters, and this is definitely not the only online game plagued with them.
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For those familiar with online gaming, this is a pretty constant issue and not just a PUBG exclusive problem. Many companies try to implement various systems to prevent/catch cheaters but it’s growing frustration that doesn’t show signs of slowing down – at least not in the immediate problem. Hell, even a developer himself was caught cheating while streaming his own game! But it looks like Tencent is taking a proactive approach and has teamed up with Chinese police to catch these cheat creators and arrest them.
The Chinese police are teaming up with the company to root out underground rings that both make, and sell, cheating software. With the help of Tencent, over 30 cases have been discovered resulting in over 120 arrests. It makes sense that Bluehole Inc, the company behind PUBG, would want this issue resolved in the most efficient way possible. With 3 million concurrent players, the amount of cheaters makes up half of that number!
Cheating is rampant in both this battle royale game and many other online titles, but now it looks like action is being taken beyond hack-easy blocks in place. “PUBG is going through a puberty of sorts and cheaters threaten to stunt its growth,” said Kim Hak-joon, who analyzes gaming stocks for South Korea’s Kiwoom Securities Co. “Cheaters mostly drive away new users, and without retaining new users, PUBG won’t be able to consolidate its early success and become a long-lasting hit.”
“There are more cheaters than any normal game because of the huge popularity,” said Daniel Ahmad, an analyst for researcher Niko Partners. And “China as a gaming country is very competitive. There’s a reason why e-sports and pay-to-win is so big there.”‘
X-ray vision, auto-aim, and more are all ways that the play experience is cheapened for all players. To read more about the cases in progress, and what else Tencent and Bluehole are hoping to accomplish, you can check out the full report from Bloomberg Technology here.
