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.
Quoting: KimyrielleQuoting: ToddLQuoting: CatKillerQuoting: 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.
If only that happened over 20 years ago because at this point, Linux will never reach a large market at the rate it's going.
Huh? Our market-share seemed to have exploded last year, after endless years of hovering just around 1%. This is probably in large part thanks to the Steam Deck, and we're already getting noticed by more developers, just not the ones whose games you probably don't want to buy anyway (EA, Ubi...)
While it's great that Steam Deck has helped with increasing the marketshare, it still pales in comparison to Windows and unless Linux reaches levels that make it compelling enough for these companies to invest in creating solutions for their anti-cheat software, they don't care enough to deal with it and instead, block access without trying.
pleasereadthemanual May 20
Quoting: ToddLA 100% increase in market share in 2 years isn't bad.Quoting: KimyrielleQuoting: ToddLQuoting: CatKillerQuoting: 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.
If only that happened over 20 years ago because at this point, Linux will never reach a large market at the rate it's going.
Huh? Our market-share seemed to have exploded last year, after endless years of hovering just around 1%. This is probably in large part thanks to the Steam Deck, and we're already getting noticed by more developers, just not the ones whose games you probably don't want to buy anyway (EA, Ubi...)
While it's great that Steam Deck has helped with increasing the marketshare, it still pales in comparison to Windows and unless Linux reaches levels that make it compelling enough for these companies to invest in creating solutions for their anti-cheat software, they don't care enough to deal with it and instead, block access without trying.
Quoting: CatKillerIt's certainly the preferred solution. But I dunno, if cheaters can get around anticheat, which as far as I can make out they can, I don't see why Wine/Proton couldn't. It'd have to be an unofficial version, ideally developed in some country/ies where it is not illegal to circumvent blah blah blah. So there would be problems with distributing it. But it could surely be done.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.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyIt's certainly the preferred solution. But I dunno, if cheaters can get around anticheat, which as far as I can make out they can, I don't see why Wine/Proton couldn't. It'd have to be an unofficial version, ideally developed in some country/ies where it is not illegal to circumvent blah blah blah. So there would be problems with distributing it. But it could surely be done.
Then they'll just check for Wine & Proton and ban anyone they detect using it. That's not a solution.
That's why you need the developers & publishers on board, and for that you need market size.
Last edited by CatKiller on 20 May 2024 at 8:55 am UTC
Quoting: westurnerWhat are some solutions to anti-cheat on
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?
EAC(Easy Anti Cheat) and VAC(Valve Anti Cheat) run on Linux.
Epic used EAC, before they developed their own, which they're now implementing, which is good news for cheaters, but that is a different question.
Edit:
Here's a full website devoted to this question.
Last edited by LoudTechie on 20 May 2024 at 5:37 pm UTC
EA isn't very consumerfriendly, yet they want to make money. I don't think they want to miss out the opportunity to make more money off Steam Deck users forever.
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