'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' Temporarily Blocks Personal Item Trades, Citing Possible 'Abuse' Via Third-Party Sites
"PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" developers have turned off the ability to trade in-game items and gear between players, as of Friday, May 4. PUBG Corp. cited their move as a temporary measure to prevent potential abuse of the system via third-party websites.
For now, "PUBG" developers have not yet laid out a timeline on how long this ban on in-game trading will continue, according to Eurogamer's report.
This feature, which the is called "Personal Trade," is a way to let "PUBG" players trade items "without any costs attached." This feature is now turned off in the meantime, as PUBG Corp. explained in their update via Steam.
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"Recently, though, we've seen a few cases of players using the personal trade function to sell items using third party sites. This is essentially an abuse of the system," PUBG Corp. explained in their post. For now, the only way "PUBG" players can get items from other players is via Market trade.
Market trade lets players sell items through the Steam market system, which could charge a "Steam Fee" of about 5 percent on top of "game specific fees," which varies from title to title.
In any case, Valve takes a minimum of $0.01 for every Market trade transaction done through their service, as Steam laid out in their support article.
Some "PUBG" players have turned to third-party sides which, combined with the "Personal Trade" feature, makes up something of a gray market for "PUBG" items.
"To prevent this, we're temporarily turning off personal trades while we search for a better solution. Once we figure out a way to prevent abuse, the restriction will be lifted," PUBG Corp. added in their statement. The developers did not give a time frame on how long they will take to figure this out, as of this writing.
PUBG Corp. may be taking a controversial stance here when it comes to third-party selling services, but there's one target of this ban that's been the focus of headlines last year — gambling websites.
Prominent YouTube users were found to have been running gambling websites that use in-game items and currencies as prizes. These gambling sites were also reportedly rigging bets to ensure that their partners with prominent YouTube channels would win as well, to attract more bettors.
"These unlicensed websites are a hidden form of gambling - they're parasites feeding off popular video games, presenting a clear and present danger to players including kids," Sarah Harrison, CEO of the Gambling Commission in the UK, cited the threat of third-party gambling sites that now try to latch on to high-profile games like "PUBG."
Players are now expecting more updates from PUBG Corp. on when they will re-enable "Player Trading" after they figure out how to keep out potential abuse via third-party websites.
