PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has a serious problem with cheaters, and the company says that roughly 99 percent of all cheats originate from China.
PUBG has been available in Early Access for a good while now and it recently made its official debut. It stirred great interest so far, but it's also been riddled with issues, some easier to solve, and others more difficult to address.
Server issues, for instance, can be fixed more easily. The cheating problem, however, is more serious and it's increasingly plaguing the game. Many PUBG players feel that China is responsible for the game's cheating problem, and they're apparently right.
99 Percent Of PUBG Cheats Come From China
The game has seen a notable increase in cheaters in recent months, and some of them even promoted their hacks, inspiring others to cheat as well. Many of them got shut down, but more are appearing each day. In China, it seems, cheating is almost the norm.
"Around 99 percent of cheats in the game right now are coming out of China," Brendan Greene, the game's creator, tells Kotaku. "There's a massive cheat market not just in China, but around the world. But it's seen as kind of a little bit more acceptable to cheat in games in China. Also geographically, they just have a lot more people than anywhere else in the world."
Banning Chinese Players From Other Servers?
Some PUBG players annoyed by this cheating problem have even suggested drastic measures such as banning Chinese players from servers in other regions. Greene, however, says that although it's true that the vast majority of PUBG cheats come from China, resorting to such an extreme measure would be too much.
Greene highlights that most cheaters and cheating programs may come from China, but that doesn't automatically mean that all PUBG players in China cheat. Overall, Greene says that the game's Chinese community loves PUBG and an entire country should not be blocked from playing on whatever servers they want. Consequently, banning all Chinese players from other servers is not an acceptable solution, he explains.
Solving PUBG Cheating Problem
At the same time, Greene points out that although weeding out all cheaters is an uphill battle, the game's new anti-cheat systems already managed to crack down on roughly 67 percent of cheaters recently. It's not over yet, but it's notable progress nonetheless.
The PUBG team is currently working with new automated systems, training them to detect cheaters red-handed, quickly and more accurately, as soon as they go live. The systems would rely on statistics, as well as a number of other determining factors. It's still a work in progress, but Greene hopes to rid the game of all cheaters one day.
Until that time comes, Greene advises all players to report cheaters as they encounter them, so that PlayerUnknown can deal with them.
