Since its full release late last year, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp has sought to boost game performance and come down hard on cheaters. With the latter in mind, an early version of a "new anti-cheat solution"—which was hinted at last week—will roll out on live servers next week. A new update explains what it's all about.
"This solution will complement the systems that have been developed and implemented already," reads this Steam Community post, written by Dohyung Lee, the dev's head of service management and anti-cheat. "Its main focus for now is blocking unauthorized programs but it will be further developed to broaden the scope of its abilities."
In doing so, helper programmes which might alter the game's graphics or "aid gameplay in some way" will be blocked; so too could programmes that behave like cheat applications, even if they don't give users an unfair advantage.
Admittedly, I've only come across obvious cheaters on a couple of occasions—once by way of auto-aim, and another who I'm certain used a visibility-through-walls exploit—however the game's subreddit is filled with disgruntled players who claim to have suffered at the hands of those breaking the rules.
To this end, PUBG Corp has banned upwards of 1.5 million cheaters since its Early Access arrival last year—and has even reported taking down 100,000 rule breakers in a "single wave".
The latest update suggests improvements are in-line for its in-game report function, while Steam family sharing will be deactivated in due course.
Here's Lee on that:
We have an announcement for those of you using family sharing on Steam. We had allowed this feature so that the account holders who own PUBG can use their character with other Steam accounts if they wanted to. However, we have decided to deactivate this feature because we have identified a number of vulnerabilities that are being exploited. Please understand that we are introducing this measure to fight abuse and ensure a fair environment.
We would like to sincerely thank all players who have always played fair, respected other players, and enjoyed PUBG as part of a healthy community. We will do our utmost to minimize the exposure of players who play fair to those who don’t. We ask for your understanding and active feedback so that we can create an enjoyable environment for PUBG together.
Lee concludes by saying PUBG's anti-cheat solution will be upgraded "steadily" following its implementation next week, and will be evolved over time to ascertain a long-lasting "fair game environment."
