Chinese police have arrested 15 people suspected of developing and selling hacking programs for popular battle royale shooter PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. 

PUBG Corp.'s communications lead Ryan Rigney broke the news on the Steam forums, explaining the group had been including trojan horse software and other "malicious code" in their programs in an attempt to steal player information. 

All 15 were branded "major suspects" by Chinese authorities, and have been fined approximately 30 million yuan ($5.1 million) for their troubles. 

Tencent, the game's distributor in China, has been working with local law enforcement to crack down on cheating since the start of the year, with Battlegrounds having become the biggest source of cheat software in the region. 

Rigney has reiterated PUBG Corp.'s commitment to cracking down on hacking and cheating in all forms, and claims the studio is working hard to develop and implement new security measures and anti-cheat solutions.

"As you all now know, we’ve been doing everything possible to root out cheating from Battlegrounds. The ultimate goal is to create an environment for players that's completely safe from hackers and cheaters," he commented.

"We take cheating extremely seriously. Developing, selling, promoting, or using unauthorized hacking and cheating programs isn't just unfair for others playing Battlegrounds -- in many places, it's also against the law."