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Update: Posted on X, the Halo Support account mentioned they're looking into it - "The #HaloMCC team is investigating reports that players on Steam Deck are experiencing Easy Anti-Cheat error messages after Tuesday's update. Stay tuned for updates on this bug investigation."


Original article below:

After a recent update Halo: The Master Chief Collection seems to have broken online play support for Steam Deck due to Easy Anti-Cheat.

If you remember, back in April they did announce Steam Deck support for online play and put up a support article for it. This came with a few minor issues, like needing to pick the Steam launch option that actually says it's off (the options were backwards). Since the update on September 19th, it just doesn't work with Easy Anti-Cheat errors.

When you go to launch multiplayer from the main menu with the option that has anti-cheat turned on you'll see an error like this when you try to go into multiplayer:

And when picking the Steam launch option with anti-cheat off, which going by their support article is still the option to actually use to have it enabled as it's backwards, you're met with this:

Going by the error messages, it seems like they may have put the Steam options actually the right way around now but broke it in the process. I've tested this myself across both Proton 8 and Proton Experimental and neither works. Restarting it doesn't change anything, rebooting the Steam Deck doesn't help either.

Lots of people on Reddit have noticed it and report the same issue (but a few note oddly it still works for them?), so hopefully Microsoft / 343 will fix whatever they did soon. I've reached out to their teams to see what's going on - will update if I get any reply.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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19 comments

ElectricPrism Sep 20, 2023
Bummer, good thing I haven't got sucked into their mcc deck multiplayer again for fear of this very possibility.

I hope their goodwill is plain, and we see them fix it very soon.

I bet a lot of their customers have decks, we'll see if they are enough to wake the lion up to do something.
MayeulC Sep 20, 2023
Quite a few comments on the update and the steam forum, too, including mine. I actually noticed less than 20 minutes after this update, as that's when I tried to check if I had some weekly challenges left.

I've finally started a co-op play through with a friend 1.5 weeks ago, it was an awesome nostalgia trip until now. I guess it's on hold for the moment...
pleasereadthemanual Sep 21, 2023
I've never managed to get multiplayer to work on the desktop, despite many attempts.
MayeulC Sep 21, 2023
I've never managed to get multiplayer to work on the desktop, despite many attempts.

I had to completely uninstall it last week to finally make it work. Also, I think I had an old Proton version selected, prior to that.
steamdeckguy Sep 21, 2023
BRUH

I bought MCC for my steam deck back in February when it was broken. Played through a couple of campaigns then uninstalled.

You mean to tell me THE EXACT SAME DAY I decide to check on the status of multiplayer and redownload after hearing that it was fixed in April, that it breaks again???

WTF
MayeulC Sep 21, 2023
Someone suggested sending a flag report to 343 as indicated in their steam deck support article.

I submitted a report (see my post in the steam forums for details), unsure if additional reports would be considered helpful or spammy.

Edit: I guess it helps, this is what I've received in the automated answer:
Halo Support Agents will review your submitted media and, if it shows an in-game bug, link your Flag Report to the bug in our internal bug database. Reporting issues to Halo Support helps the development team understand how often an issue occurs, the issue's impact on players, and how they should prioritize addressing the issue.

Liam, the URL contained parenthesis that I had to manually transform to %{28,29}, I think the parser could be improved :)


Last edited by MayeulC on 21 September 2023 at 1:00 pm UTC
ElectricPrism Sep 21, 2023
BRUH

I bought MCC for my steam deck back in February when it was broken. Played through a couple of campaigns then uninstalled.

You mean to tell me THE EXACT SAME DAY I decide to check on the status of multiplayer and redownload after hearing that it was fixed in April, that it breaks again???

WTF

Exactly, reasons like this are why I don't play Halo daily anymore. Microsoft needs to step up their game and not be so nepotistic.

I could play MCC every day for a decade and have fun -- but when I don't know if I'm going to have the whole thing come crashing down and break, additional new obnoxious microsoft account logins, hard-anti-cheats, etc... I am sick of being poked and prodded. I just end up playing CounterStrike instead because it's easy and reliable, and with CS2 around the corner and in beta now it's not like I'm a choosing beggar.

Thanks everyone who puts a word in, I DO want to see them sort this out real soon. Here's to hope ^.
benstor214 Sep 21, 2023
View PC info
  • Supporter
Liam, the URL contained parenthesis that I had to manually transform to %{28,29}, I think the parser could be improved :)
Hmm... looking at the URL you mention (especially the part where a string is passed) [...]/signin?return_to= this might be done by the very website you linked to for reason of protection against injection methods... I don't think the GOL Forum is to blame here.
edit:grammar


Last edited by benstor214 on 21 September 2023 at 7:26 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Sep 21, 2023
Liam, the URL contained parenthesis that I had to manually transform to %{28,29}, I think the parser could be improved :)
Hmm... looking at URL you mention (especially the part where a string is passed) [...]/signin?return_to= this might be done by the very website you linked to for reason of protection against injection methods... I don't think the GOL Forum is to blame here.
Protection against injection methods? You mean they're anti-vaxxers?
benstor214 Sep 21, 2023
View PC info
  • Supporter
You mean they're anti-vaxxers?
This made me giggle.
Liam Dawe Sep 21, 2023
Liam, the URL contained parenthesis that I had to manually transform to %{28,29}, I think the parser could be improved :)
I believe I have fixed it, what an absolutely ridiculous URL that is wow. In future, PLEAAAASE don't put bug reports in random article comments - it's lucky I even saw it. Bug reports to the Forum or GitLab please in future.
Liam Dawe Sep 21, 2023
Article updated: they're looking into it.
pleasereadthemanual Sep 21, 2023
I've never managed to get multiplayer to work on the desktop, despite many attempts.

I had to completely uninstall it last week to finally make it work. Also, I think I had an old Proton version selected, prior to that.
I installed it from scratch, tried various Proton versions including GE, but EAC just doesn't work for me, I guess. I have similar issues with other EAC games like Back 4 Blood. The last time I tried was right after GOL announced MCC's EAC was finally working on GNU/Linux, but...
Thibug Sep 22, 2023
I've never managed to get multiplayer to work on the desktop, despite many attempts.

I had to completely uninstall it last week to finally make it work. Also, I think I had an old Proton version selected, prior to that.
I installed it from scratch, tried various Proton versions including GE, but EAC just doesn't work for me, I guess. I have similar issues with other EAC games like Back 4 Blood. The last time I tried was right after GOL announced MCC's EAC was finally working on GNU/Linux, but...

A short in the dark but, do you by any chance played Star Citizen at some point ? To make it work you have to add a line to your /etc/hosts to block an EAC server, doing so break any other games using EAC as it can't update, you might want to check that.
pleasereadthemanual Sep 22, 2023
I've never managed to get multiplayer to work on the desktop, despite many attempts.

I had to completely uninstall it last week to finally make it work. Also, I think I had an old Proton version selected, prior to that.
I installed it from scratch, tried various Proton versions including GE, but EAC just doesn't work for me, I guess. I have similar issues with other EAC games like Back 4 Blood. The last time I tried was right after GOL announced MCC's EAC was finally working on GNU/Linux, but...

A short in the dark but, do you by any chance played Star Citizen at some point ? To make it work you have to add a line to your /etc/hosts to block an EAC server, doing so break any other games using EAC as it can't update, you might want to check that.
I don't own Star Citizen. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Oh, and I forgot to mention I also tried the Steam Flatpak, which didn't work either.

I started thinking it was an issue with Arch Linux shipping the glibc update, but everything I've read tells me they've patched it manually over half a year ago, so that shouldn't be an issue. I don't know if the Steam Flatpak bundles glibc.
MayeulC Sep 22, 2023
I've never managed to get multiplayer to work on the desktop, despite many attempts.

I had to completely uninstall it last week to finally make it work. Also, I think I had an old Proton version selected, prior to that.
I installed it from scratch, tried various Proton versions including GE, but EAC just doesn't work for me, I guess. I have similar issues with other EAC games like Back 4 Blood. The last time I tried was right after GOL announced MCC's EAC was finally working on GNU/Linux, but...

A short in the dark but, do you by any chance played Star Citizen at some point ? To make it work you have to add a line to your /etc/hosts to block an EAC server, doing so break any other games using EAC as it can't update, you might want to check that.
I don't own Star Citizen. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Oh, and I forgot to mention I also tried the Steam Flatpak, which didn't work either.

I started thinking it was an issue with Arch Linux shipping the glibc update, but everything I've read tells me they've patched it manually over half a year ago, so that shouldn't be an issue. I don't know if the Steam Flatpak bundles glibc.

That shouldn't be related, I've played with the flatpak version on Arch. The only thing I see missing from the troubleshooting steps you listed is that you may need to manually install "Proton EasyAntiCheat Runtime" from Steam (should be listed next to Proton in the tools section). There was an article on GOL regarding that a while back IIRC. steam install link, steam DB

Liam, the URL contained parenthesis that I had to manually transform to %{28,29}, I think the parser could be improved :)
I believe I have fixed it, what an absolutely ridiculous URL that is wow. In future, PLEAAAASE don't put bug reports in random article comments - it's lucky I even saw it. Bug reports to the Forum or GitLab please in future.

I know, right? My bad for the bug report here, I'll try to report on GitLab in the future. It's just that this was a minor inconvenience. Thank you for fixing it, parenthesis are a common occurence on wikipedia links.


Last edited by MayeulC on 22 September 2023 at 12:55 pm UTC
pleasereadthemanual Sep 22, 2023
I've never managed to get multiplayer to work on the desktop, despite many attempts.

I had to completely uninstall it last week to finally make it work. Also, I think I had an old Proton version selected, prior to that.
I installed it from scratch, tried various Proton versions including GE, but EAC just doesn't work for me, I guess. I have similar issues with other EAC games like Back 4 Blood. The last time I tried was right after GOL announced MCC's EAC was finally working on GNU/Linux, but...

A short in the dark but, do you by any chance played Star Citizen at some point ? To make it work you have to add a line to your /etc/hosts to block an EAC server, doing so break any other games using EAC as it can't update, you might want to check that.
I don't own Star Citizen. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Oh, and I forgot to mention I also tried the Steam Flatpak, which didn't work either.

I started thinking it was an issue with Arch Linux shipping the glibc update, but everything I've read tells me they've patched it manually over half a year ago, so that shouldn't be an issue. I don't know if the Steam Flatpak bundles glibc.

That shouldn't be related, I've played with the flatpak version on Arch. The only thing I see missing from the troubleshooting steps you listed is that you may need to manually install "Proton EasyAntiCheat Runtime" from Steam (should be listed next to Proton in the tools section). There was an article on GOL regarding that a while back IIRC. steam install link, steam DB
Yes, I'm fairly certain I had it installed. I searched for it at the time and found it in my library. It seems kind of pointless to check now considering it's broken, but I'll check again when 343 announces it's fixed again.
MayeulC Sep 30, 2023
Woo, they fixed it: https://nitter.net/HaloSupport/status/1707796023194874102

I confirm this is working, at least for the exchange, I haven't tried online yet, but there's no reason why it wouldn't work.


Last edited by MayeulC on 30 September 2023 at 1:47 pm UTC
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