Well, here's another game that EA will be breaking on Steam Deck / Linux, with EA anticheat rolling out to EA SPORTS WRC when it goes live in June.
Pictured - EA SPORTS WRC, credit: Codemasters / EA.
It's worth noting that it's currently rated as Steam Deck Unsupported, but Valve's official rating is only what they've actually tested, not if something will actually work at all (like the Ghost of Tsushima situation). As announced on the EA website post, this change will arrive with the 1.9.0 update in June but they've haven't given the exact date just yet.
They are at least aware of Steam Deck as they said:
Additionally, EA SPORTS™ WRC will not run on the native Steam OS for Steam Deck following the release of EA anticheat.
EA SPORTS™ WRC has officially been categorised as "Unsupported" on Steam Deck since its release in 2023.
The game actually has a Platinum rating on ProtonDB, the crowd-sourced user-reports website, because it does run quite well from various reports on both Linux PCs and Steam Deck. So presumably this will break the entire game, not just multiplayer, since EA anticheat will run from the moment you hit play.
Sadly this follows on from Battlefield V and Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 that added it after release. Along with other titles including EA SPORTS FC 24, EA SPORTS FIFA 23, Battlefield 2042 and Madden NFL 24 that all have it. I actually wrote back in September 2022 how EA anticheat could end up problematic and it's a shame to see I was right.
I'm just waiting for it to inevitably get added to Apex Legends, although that recently had a small hiccup when moving from the old Easy Anti-Cheat to the newer EOS anti-cheat but it still works for now since both types of EAC are supported on Linux / Steam Deck.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
StoneColdSpider May 18
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualI mostly play multiplayer games, and it's sad to see ever fewer are possible to play through Proton due to anti-cheat.I can see this being a really big problem for some gamers.....
Thankfully im not affected that much at all....... I only play single player games....... So my options are way more open...... And that includes the wonderful world of emulation......
Ive almost completely dipped out on modern gaming...... The "Games as a service" trend is VERY anti consumer and I really want no part of it......
Im glad there are many non "games as a service" indies as well as older games ive never played that I can sink my teeth into......
As for multiplayer gamers such as yourself this really sucks....... I hope the tide turns for you guys soon.......
I do fear it will take a world wide video game crash for that to happen........ Hope im wrong though and it turns sooner than that for you........
This madness should be illegal...
This is where the anti-cheat comes in. They now have a kernel level software running on consumer machines. What better way to collect whatever data they want to collect when they want to collect it. Having full access at kernel level opens up huge revenue. If you look at all the companies that I’ve had data breaches, in the last decade, including Microsoft, this should worry consumers in a big way.
Right now there might be disagreements about how much data they collect and when they collect it but a precedent has been set, and people are giving companies more than Microsoft dystopian levels of access to their personal machines. All in the name of stopping cheating. And people really believe this, what a joke.
Last edited by twinsonian on 18 May 2024 at 12:28 pm UTC
mAdCraZyaJ May 18
Quoting: twinsonianThe anti-cheat these companies are putting in has nothing to do with cheating for the most part. Right now with companies, reaching for maximum profits to keep shareholders happy they need creative revenue streams, micro transactions and predatory practices are pretty obvious. They are only good for short term cash grabs, but continue to hurt consumer trust with the companies.VERY well-put. Unfortunately, gamers are usually not that great at organising against these sorts of things, and are typically perfectly accepting of it as long as they get XYZ Thing that they personally want, wider consequences be damned. Until some massive breaches occur and put people in actual danger, most folks just aren't going to care, which drives me mad, because it's their blind acceptance of it in the first place that causes problems for everyone.
This is where the anti-cheat comes in. They now have a kernel level software running on consumer machines. What better way to collect whatever data they want to collect when they want to collect it. Having full access at kernel level opens up huge revenue. If you look at all the companies that I’ve had data breaches, in the last decade, including Microsoft, this should worry consumers in a big way.
Right now there might be disagreements about how much data they collect and when they collect it but a precedent has been set, and people are giving companies more than Microsoft dystopian levels of access to their personal machines. All in the name of stopping cheating. And people really believe this, what a joke.
Quoting: mAdCraZyaJSecondly, why can’t they give a launch option to disable anti cheat and thus disabling multiplayer. At least the rest of the game will be usable then.The sad fact is, they don't have any reason to care - they've already got your money.
Linux?
For users that purchased these titles that were playable on their computers at time of purchase, this also causes me to avoid such companies.
(By comparison,
can't they run games in VMs, on Gamestreaming services?)
Though Linux users shouldn't settle for it,
Is "Offline mode only" an option?
Quoting: westurnerWhat are some solutions to anti-cheat on
Linux?
Grow Linux so that it's too big a market for anyone to decide to just ignore. That's it; that's the only solution.
needs
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="xinput1_3=n" to work thoughAnd it spams my logitech G920 with the FFB commands that will get delayed. Workaround is to use ffbtools from berarama with:
ffbwrap --throttling --throttling-time 16 /dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_G920_Driving_Force_Racing_Wheel_for_Xbox_One_0000c58d7f6b6a4c-event-joystick -- %command%Feels pretty good and yeah no bullshit kernel level anticheat on thisone :)
Dirt Rally 1 and Dirt Rally 2.0 both are better games, with better physics and content, and are both available for a few bucks on any good key retailer- and both run gloriously on both desktop linux and the deck.
the first game, unlike the second, is also free of always-online nonsense, so it's my preferred version.
as always, these games from awful publishers with bad practices are rarely best in class anyways, so nothing of value was lost
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