Why can't I play PUBG Mobile anymore?

July 1, 2019 7:09 PM

I have a Google Pixelbook and was using it for months in tablet mode to play PUBG Mobile. 2 or 3 days ago I started the game and it told me it sensed I was using an Emulator and would only be pitted against other people using an emulator. I do not know what an emulator is and had not changed anything on my laptop but now when the game is on, there are no controls on the screen, making it impossible to play. What happened and how can I fix it?
posted by dobbs to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

ChromeOS runs Android software as an emulator as far as the software is concerned. People use emulators probably most commonly to cheat as it is easier to do that on an emulator. You’re using it for legitimate purposes. I’d suggest playing with emulator players as anything to avoid emulator detection will be a cat and mouse game of PUBG detecting and banning.

To be fair, you can play with a keyboard and mouse in theory which gives you a bit of an edge if you wanted to use it like that. Stupid I know but it is easier to ban ltjen to detect all edge cases like ChromeOS users.
posted by geoff. at 7:44 PM on July 1, 2019

Correction I looked into this and I shouldn’t have said emulators are used primarily to cheat but you can use them legitimately on hardware that’s so advanced beyond what you’d consider a phone it could reasonably be considered a different device. Short answer is that unless PUBG considers whatever information passed about your device is what they consider mobile you’re out of luck. The emulator message should say “We don’t consider PixelBook a mobile device, please play with our enhanced tablet users!”
posted by geoff. at 8:05 PM on July 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Except it's the only device I've ever used to play and it has never said it before.

Also, I do not have a mouse and do not use the keyboard as it's a touch screen (the keyboard is folded around 360 degrees to be behind the screen).

Also... the controls are no longer visible on the screen -- like the shoot button or the run or the jump buttons, making it literally impossible to play.
posted by dobbs at 8:41 PM on July 1, 2019

Possibly they have updated their decision on whether the Pixelbook is a tablet or a laptop? I can see wanting to separate phone/tablet players from laptop/PC players since the latter would have a huge advantage with mouse & keyboard controls.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:37 AM on July 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: For what it's worth, it appears the game was patched on June 11th, and the patch notes say:

"Upgraded 3rd party app prevention system and enhanced detection of cheating behavior via Virtual App, emulators and modifiers"

I don't play the game, but I'm guessing it now senses you have access to a physical keyboard (even if you don't use it) and is automatically putting you in that pool of players.
posted by bluecore at 6:59 AM on July 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

If an Android App or your Chrome OS was updated, you've made a change to your computer. Looks like PUBG recently updated their App. I agree with the users above. Looks like it has something to do with preventing cheating. Here's a quote about the update, "Upgraded 3rd party app prevention system and enhanced detection of cheating behavior via Virtual App, emulators and modifiers". You might be able to play the game with a Bluetooth game controler like this.
posted by mundo at 7:00 AM on July 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks, all. Guess I'll just uninstall. :(
posted by dobbs at 7:51 AM on July 2, 2019