Considering the fact that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Steam sales have made it the third-highest grossing game on Valve's digital distribution platform, it's safe to say that the battle royale title is a bona fide success. Of course, many would still argue that the game suffers from a litany of issues, with one ever-present complaint from lots of fans being about how Chinese cheaters are making PUBG matches unfair. This has led to plenty of calls for PUBG Corp. to "region lock China," but its creator Brendan Greene disagrees that it's a viable solution to the problem.

The PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds creator revealed as much to US Gamer during the 2018 Game Developers Conference, with Greene stating, "I mean, everyone that [suggests] region locking [is forgetting about] VPN. It just doesn’t work." Greene then went on to point out that the recently implemented ping-based matchmaking, which only pairs players with those who have the same or similar ping, has improved the experience for many.

"We just implemented ping-based matchmaking which really has improved the gameplay experience for a lot of players. It's working out quite well and we're still doing research. We have the data team looking into it and trying to improve it. And that's the goal with the game, to keep improving it over this year and the next year and the next ten years."

Ever since its inception, the development team behind PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has been trying to thwart cheating as much as possible, with one attempt being in the addition of reporting aspects to the game, including the somewhat recently incorporated 3D killcams and replay features. Furthermore, PUBG Corp. has, as Greene suggested to US Gamer, implemented "anti-cheating testing internally" with the company "working to build systems to really get a handle on the guys that don't want to play fair."

While some PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds fans may disagree with Greene's stance when it comes to the notion of region locking the game in China, it would be difficult for one to claim that PUBG Corp. is not taking the issue of cheating seriously. After all, the development team behind the battle royale title has been steadily working on anti-cheat updates, introduced fresh rules in an effort to stop cheaters and unauthorized programs, and has banned more than one million players in the past for the offense.

What's more is that Tencent – the company responsible for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' Chinese localization and the mobile port – went so far as to work with the country's police to catch cheat makers. This collaboration between Tencent and the Chinese authorities assisted police in uncovering 30 cases of alleged involvement in making PUBG cheats and led to the arrest 120 people in China.

Taking all of this into consideration, it looks as if PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will not be region locking China any time soon in an effort to discourage cheaters. So, hopefully the aforementioned efforts on behalf of PUBG Corp. and Tencent will manage to stymie the unethical practice in the long run, if not end it altogether.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is available now on Android and iOS devices, PC, and through early access on Xbox One.

Source: US Gamer