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:
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Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: RichardYaoLiam, as I said previously, being Steam Deck verified is not an official announcement of support because the developer has no control over whether Valve does it. The only thing close to an official announcement that we received was the developer merging its steam deck compatibility branch into master, which is not a promise of long term support.I disagree. If Deck Verified is not confirmation that it's supported (by either Valve or the developer), then it quite frankly makes it pointless. This is one of the only things the Deck has, and I will continue to report on it.
Please stop treating Steam Deck verified status as some kind of official announcement going forward. Steam Deck verified status just means that the game passed Valve's compatibility checklist. Consequently, the steam deck verified status is likely to be revoked unless the developer fixes this ASAP.
That being said, if you restore a backup of the `easyanticheat_x64.so` file (default location: `~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Apex Legends/easyanticheat_x64.so`) after the update, the game will continue to work. Since a number of people at Valve play Apex Legends, I imagine that they will be contacting the developer about this, so it is possible that another update will restore out of box support soon, assuming that they do not disable the server support. As long as the server support for Proton remains in place, it is possible that this was a mistake. If server support breaks, then we know that this is intentional.
Valve advertise Verified / Playable status on their store for everyone to see, and on their Steam Deck Library pages and in the Steam Deck Storefront itself has a dedicated section just for these titles that shows by default.
If it's not official, then Valve 100% should not show it. It's as simple as that, otherwise it's thoroughly misleading and I will continue to report on it the good and bad because it's important and this whole situations only highlights further as to why.
Hopefully this will improve overtime as developers consider Steam Deck a viable market and treat it as a 1st priority platform.
Looking at Apex Legends specifically it does appear that Apex was verified with developer engagement, the anti-cheat wouldn't have been there otherwise.
What it does highlight is that a game should really be reverified upon a new update.
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This will be fixed soon because Gaben wants to play Apex, and nobody in their right mind would want to make Gaben mad.
https://youtu.be/Rcmz7yMJ2ik
https://youtu.be/Rcmz7yMJ2ik
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Bug already filed here, upvote if you want it fixed fast: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Removal-of-EAC-under-Linux-makes-game-unplayable-on-Linux/m-p/11358791
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RichardYao Mar 15, 2022
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: RichardYaoLiam, as I said previously, being Steam Deck verified is not an official announcement of support because the developer has no control over whether Valve does it. The only thing close to an official announcement that we received was the developer merging its steam deck compatibility branch into master, which is not a promise of long term support.I disagree. If Deck Verified is not confirmation that it's supported (by either Valve or the developer), then it quite frankly makes it pointless. This is one of the only things the Deck has, and I will continue to report on it.
Please stop treating Steam Deck verified status as some kind of official announcement going forward. Steam Deck verified status just means that the game passed Valve's compatibility checklist. Consequently, the steam deck verified status is likely to be revoked unless the developer fixes this ASAP.
That being said, if you restore a backup of the `easyanticheat_x64.so` file (default location: `~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Apex Legends/easyanticheat_x64.so`) after the update, the game will continue to work. Since a number of people at Valve play Apex Legends, I imagine that they will be contacting the developer about this, so it is possible that another update will restore out of box support soon, assuming that they do not disable the server support. As long as the server support for Proton remains in place, it is possible that this was a mistake. If server support breaks, then we know that this is intentional.
Valve advertise Verified / Playable status on their store for everyone to see, and on their Steam Deck Library pages and in the Steam Deck Storefront itself has a dedicated section just for these titles that shows by default.
If it's not official, then Valve 100% should not show it. It's as simple as that, otherwise it's thoroughly misleading and I will continue to report on it the good and bad because it's important and this whole situations only highlights further as to why.
See Valve’s documentation:
QuoteGames that check these four boxes are Deck Verified.
Input
The title should have full controller support, use appropriate controller input icons, and automatically bring up the on-screen keyboard when needed.
Display
The game should support the default resolution of Steam Deck (1280x800 or 1280x720), have good default settings, and text should be legible.
Seamlessness
The title shouldn’t display any compatibility warnings, and if there’s a launcher it should be navigable with a controller.
System Support
If running through Proton, the game and all its middleware should be supported by Proton. This includes anti-cheat support.
https://www.steamdeck.com/en/verified
This does not make any promise that being steam deck verified implies a commitment of support on the part of the developer. Your remark about it being misleading is correct.
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RichardYao Mar 15, 2022
Quoting: avivillozQuoting: XpanderQuoting: rustybroomhandleQuoting: RichardYaoQuoting: quotI wonder if dropping in that missing `easyanticheat_x64.so` file would fix the issue. The removal seems accidental, so I'm assuming the main binary is still compatible. Of course, you're risking a ban if you try that, but I am curious.
It does fix the issue.
How did you get the correct file?
i backed up the file before the game updated :)
could you maybe share this file somehow?
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/te62pa/apex_legends_eac_file/
Keep in mind that this is technically copyright infringement on the part of the person distributing the file. It would avoid copyright infringement if we figured out how to download the old depot version from Valve to get it.
Last edited by RichardYao on 15 March 2022 at 12:52 am UTC
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pleasereadthemanual Mar 15, 2022
Quoting: RichardYaoIt should also be classified as copyright infringement for the person obtaining/making a copy of the file. Otherwise no one would be successfully prosecuted for downloading copyrighted content from anyone aside from the copyright holder or those they've authorized.Quoting: avivillozQuoting: XpanderQuoting: rustybroomhandleQuoting: RichardYaoQuoting: quotI wonder if dropping in that missing `easyanticheat_x64.so` file would fix the issue. The removal seems accidental, so I'm assuming the main binary is still compatible. Of course, you're risking a ban if you try that, but I am curious.
It does fix the issue.
How did you get the correct file?
i backed up the file before the game updated :)
could you maybe share this file somehow?
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/te62pa/apex_legends_eac_file/
Keep in mind that this is technically copyright infringement on the part of the person distributing the file. It would avoid copyright infringement if we figured out how to download the old depot version from Valve to get it.
As most sources tend to focus on the legality of sharing the content rather than obtaining it, there's not a wealth of information about it, but here's a wikipedia article.
Legality appears to vary depending on the country.
Although, on another note, anyone can be prosecuted for anything regardless of whether they did it or not, so I'm not really making a good argument there. I couldn't find any cases where such a prosecution was successful; mostly cases where the defendant settled.
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Quoting: pleasereadthemanualQuoting: RichardYaoIt should also be classified as copyright infringement for the person obtaining/making a copy of the file. Otherwise no one would be successfully prosecuted for downloading copyrighted content from anyone aside from the copyright holder or those they've authorized.Quoting: avivillozQuoting: XpanderQuoting: rustybroomhandleQuoting: RichardYaoQuoting: quotI wonder if dropping in that missing `easyanticheat_x64.so` file would fix the issue. The removal seems accidental, so I'm assuming the main binary is still compatible. Of course, you're risking a ban if you try that, but I am curious.
It does fix the issue.
How did you get the correct file?
i backed up the file before the game updated :)
could you maybe share this file somehow?
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/te62pa/apex_legends_eac_file/
Keep in mind that this is technically copyright infringement on the part of the person distributing the file. It would avoid copyright infringement if we figured out how to download the old depot version from Valve to get it.
As most sources tend to focus on the legality of sharing the content rather than obtaining it, there's not a wealth of information about it, but here's a wikipedia article.
Legality appears to vary depending on the country.
Although, on another note, anyone can be prosecuted for anything regardless of whether they did it or not, so I'm not really making a good argument there. I couldn't find any cases where such a prosecution was successful; mostly cases where the defendant settled.
Those individuals where sued because they used software that uploaded the copyrighted material to other people while they where downloading it themselves. AFAIK no one have been sued for just downloading, it's distribution that is protected under copyright, for usage to be infringing you have to go to patents.
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fenglengshun Mar 15, 2022
Uh, latest patch seems to have returned the anti-cheat file?
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Quoting: fenglengshunUh, latest patch seems to have returned the anti-cheat file?Yep, everything seems to be in order again.
So looks like it was just a mistake on their side.
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RichardYao Mar 15, 2022
Quoting: RaseaI'm not surprised, I'm just disappointed.
https://steamdb.info/app/1172470/patchnotes/
They fixed it:
https://steamdb.info/patchnotes/8372024/
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