Update 15/03/22 - It's now fixed, with no word again from anyone. The EAC file was just put back nearly ~9 hours later.
Even though Apex Legends was marked officially Steam Deck Verified by Valve on March 9, that we covered in an article, it's now been updated and it's broken on Steam Deck and Linux desktops.
It's still not really clear what's going on. No announcement was made previously from any party. Valve didn't say anything, Respawn (the developer) didn't and EA (the publisher) also stayed silent. It just seemed to go through Deck Verified, and showed the whole world it worked as it was properly live on the Steam store and in your Steam Library on Deck. Now, a patch came in and it has removed the Linux Easy Anti-Cheat file so the game will boot you out telling you it's not working.
This is pretty frustrating. We've talked a couple of times now across articles and videos on issues with Deck Verified, and this certainly doesn't help. There's always going to be teething issues with a new platform of course but this isn't even a Top 100 title, Apex is constantly in the Top 10 on Steam. To have it break like this even though it's Deck Verified? What the heck is going on?
It does bring up other questions now too like: how long is the lag between a major game getting an upgrade, and it going through Deck Verified again to check it works? What about smaller games, do they have to wait longer? The list of questions goes on.
Such a shame, as it became an instant favourite of mine and worked so nicely on Deck:
Direct Link
I haven't seen any piece of theirs to support that... did anyone?
Sure, they're playing with fire there, because if we're lucky the Deck will bea success outside the Linux audience that has already learned not to expect official support...
But then again, they've at least been clear enough that the certification is done on their end (a "Valve garanteed") and about the criteria they use.
ps: I think it's a victory on its own right that some devs have actively engaged with the certification on a voluntary basis to provide fixes and improvements, ask for recertification, etc, after choosing not to release a linux native version of their game in the first place.
pps: It would be even more awesome if Valve made it POSSIBLE for devs to choose and signal to users that Proton is officially supported and/or that the Deck is officially supported... right now I think this doesn't even EXIST, and devs wanting to provide it would be left to signal the fact as a game news article and as a fixed post in the game's forum, at best.
Yet I guess, at some point, we will see more deck stati, where devs can actively show committment.
Maybe even agreeing to do the first-level support and only reroute to valve if the error is clearly in proton and can't be worked around. But I don't think the time is just yet. In Q4 enough units might be out, so devs will consider that button.
Last edited by const on 17 March 2022 at 1:52 pm UTC
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: pete910And this is why I don't like this relyance we are heading for on wine/proton !Native games aren't invulnerable to breaking, I've written my fair share of articles on exactly that.
Native FTW !
that is very true i have a couple of native games that no longer work and i have to use proton in order to use them.
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