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Tencent And Chinese Police Bust $76 Million Cheating Operation

It appears to be the largest video game cheating operation in history and included games like Overwatch.

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A lucrative video game cheating enterprise that enabled its operators to buy luxury sports cars has been shut down. It appears to have generated more than $76 million in revenue prior to a raid by Chinese authorities.

As reported by the BBC, the cheating group, which called itself "Chicken Drumstick," was raided in a collaborative operation between Chinese authorities and Tencent, the enormous conglomerate that also runs some of China's biggest video game businesses. As part of the raid, more than $46 million in assets were seized, including several sports cars. It was headquartered in eastern China in the Jiangsu province, which is near Shanghai.

10 people were arrested as part of the operation, with police destroying "17 cheats," though it's unclear exactly what that means. They said users could pay $200 a month to access cheats, which were available for some of the most-popular games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Overwatch. Users were also able to pay a daily $10 rate to access the cheats, so at least those who had to play against cheaters can sleep knowing they were shelling out a ridiculous amount of money to win a Gun Game match.

Tencent's involvement in this was likely because it owns Call of Duty: Mobile studio TiMi, despite the game itself still being published by Activision. Hundreds of countries were involved, according to local media reports. In addition to Call of Duty: Mobile, Tencent owns Riot Games, which created both League of Legends and Valorant. Given the very intense competitive nature of both games, keeping the playing field even is of the upmost importance.

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