PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is putting a temporary stop to personal item trading, citing instances of players selling items via third party sites. The market trade function will remain active during this period, which players can use to sell items through the Steam market system. PUBG Corp released a statement today explaining its decision.

Steam's Community Marketplace allows players to sell their valuables to other players for real money. However, the amount of items sold and the total cash value exchanged is governed by a market limit. So, determined PUBG players found a loophole in the personal trading system that allowed them to exceed the market limits. According to PUBG Corp, this is an abuse of the system.

The statement released today is sparse on details, but it does make clear that this is only a temporary solution, and that the personal trading system will be re-opened once a solution is found.

"'Personal trade' is supposed to allow friends to trade items without any costs attached. Recently, though, we've seen a few cases of players using the personal trade function to sell items using third party sites," the statement reads. "Once we figure out a way to prevent abuse, the restriction will be lifted."

Without a doubt, the restriction will have a drastic affect on the game's skin economy, as well as the finances of its investors. However, this is another positive sign that PUBG Corp isn't taking impropriety lightly, having recently conducted efforts that led to the arrests of 15 hackers suspected of stealing data and selling cheat programs for the game.

The efforts to prevent abuses in the trading system and cheating could be in reaction to the dwarfing success of Fortnite, undeniably PUBG's most formidable rival. It was recently reported that Fortnite Mobile, during its first week, pulled in five times the revenue of PUBG Mobile in the same timeframe. A portion of the discrepancy can surely be attributed to it being Fortnite Mobile's first week on the market, but PUBG will still have some catching up to do.

Fortnite comparisons aside, PUBG is still massively popular and it's unlikely it'll go anywhere any time soon. Faithful players are being rewarded with frequent updates and patches, adding new weapons, vehicles, and customization options.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is available now for PC, Xbox One, and mobile.

Source: PlayBattlegounds.com