Developer Bluehole Studios is currently working on implementing anti-cheating measures in popular Battle Royale title, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Their work was recently revealed to have dealt a major blow to hackers and cheaters within PUBG.
Cheating has been a significant and seemingly constant issue in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, to the point that it’s consistently cited as a cause for the game bleeding players. And with Fortnite quickly stomping out competition in the space, PUBG needs to do something quick.
The most recent shot across the bow of cheaters came when it was announced that 15 people had been arrested in relation to making cheats for PUBG. According to the announcement:
PUBG has been working extensively with multiple partners and judicial authorities to bring these people to justice.” The developer adds that it will “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.
These most recent arrests add to the total of people arrested related to cheating in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds to nearly 150. The majority being the result of a massive legal crackdown from Chinese investment company Tencent.
This time the focus for the arrests was around the fact that many of these cheats were vectors for malware distribution.
Authorities working on the case, translated via Bluehole, said: “15 major suspects including ‘OMG’, ‘FL’, ‘火狐’, ‘须弥’ and ‘炎黄’ were arrested for developing hack programs, hosting marketplaces for hack programs, and brokering transactions. Currently the suspects have been fined approximately 30m RMB ($5.1m USD). The developer also points out that the investigation is ongoing, so there could be more fines and arrests incoming.
The developer and the authorities pointed out that the malware found in the various cheats targeted and stole user data through spyware techniques such as keylogging and password stealing.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available now on Android, iOS, Windows PC, and Xbox One.
