It has been revealed that gaming giant Tencent, the developers behind the upcoming Chinese version of PUBG have helped Chinese police arrest 120 people who have been charged with making programs aiding players in the popular battle royale game by letting them see through walls, auto target enemies and get a bird’s eye view of the map.
Video game cheating is a serious crime in China and people who have been convicted of cheating in the past have faced jail time of up to five years. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds anti-cheat software BattlEye has already banned 1.5 million accounts that had evidence of cheating. This has not stopped people from purchasing the games as 5.1 million copies have been sold since December 1st. Players have been asked to keep their kills in-game to under 15 in order to avoid accusations of cheating.
Tencent are currently focusing on bringing PUBG to China, along with two mobile spin offs. Offers were made to buy out Bluehole by Tencent but they were declined after the overwhelming success of PUBG. Eventually the companies settled on Tencent having the rights to develop the Chinese version of the game. It’s a no brainer why Bluehole didn’t want to sell off the rights to the most popular game worldwide as of now. It’s spiralling success has no doubt made the devs happy bunnies.