ALL THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF PC GAMES

News

South Korean hacker to spent a year in jail for Overwatch cheats

South Korean hacker to spent a year in jail for Overwatch cheats

A South Korean Overwatch player has been sentenced to a year in jail and two on probation for cheating in the online shooter.

The 28-year-old man was sentenced to one year in prison followed by a two-year probation, according to regional outlet SBS News. His software violates the country’s Game Industry Promotion Law, on top of Information and Communication Technology Protection Law.

Previous convictions have brought fines and probation periods, but this hacker landed a year of jail time after raking in roughly $180,000 from selling his software.

South Korea brought harsh new anti-cheating laws into force last year, following a year-long collaboration with Blizzard to clamp down on offenders. Last month, we reported on two hackers facing punishment for Overwatch cheats. One received a $9,300 fine and the other landed two years probation.

Regarding these laws, Blizzard stated: “The most important thing about this issue is that we are 'Building a fair game environment for players'."

Blizzard isn't the only company going legal to handle cheaters. Epic has sued Fornite bad actors, while Playerunknown's Battlegrounds Chinese publishing partner Tencent has been teaming up with local law enforcement to crack down on people selling and making hacks and cheats for the game. So far, 15 have been arrested for this


Staff Writer

Natalie Clayton is an Edinburgh-based freelance writer and game developer. Besides PCGamesInsider and Pocketgamer.biz, she's written across the games media landscape and was named in the 2018 GamesIndustry.biz 100 Rising Star list.