It's here. EA Anti-Cheat has now been rolled out into Battlefield 1, breaking another multiplayer game on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux.
We've known it was coming for a little while as I reported back in August, EA were planning this roll-out originally for September, but it seems it was later delayed until a day ago where it's only just now become live. Battlefield 1 joins the likes of Battlefield 2042, Battlefield V, EA SPORTS WRC and Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 that added EA Anti-Cheat after release and all now broken on Linux platforms.
They aren't the only games completely unplayable for Steam Deck / Linux as this EA Anti-Cheat is also in EA SPORTS FC 25, EA SPORTS Madden NFL 25, F1 24 and EA will continue using it for future multiplayer games so we can expect them all to be unplayable at release.
How long until they roll this out into Apex Legends to replace Easy Anti-Cheat? It must be only a matter of time now.
Anti-Cheat continues to be the biggest issue for gaming on Steam Deck / Linux, like how Grand Theft Auto V is also now broken due to adding in BattlEye with Rockstar refusing to enable it for Proton.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: Leahi84What I don't understand is why are these companies so hostile towards Linux?
This is such a common misconception. They are not hostile. Why should a corporation be hostile against anything really.
They are ignorant towards Linux, that's what they are. The Linux segment is so miniscule, and the cheating problem so massive, so the potential loss is nothing compared to not holding the cheaters at bay.
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Quoting: BeamboomQuoting: Leahi84What I don't understand is why are these companies so hostile towards Linux?
This is such a common misconception. They are not hostile. Why should a corporation be hostile against anything really.
They are ignorant towards Linux, that's what they are. The Linux segment is so miniscule, and the cheating problem so massive, so the potential loss is nothing compared to not holding the cheaters at bay.
Because free anything goes against their capitalistic principals and is an affront to them?
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Quoting: MohandevirRhetorical question: Did it, at least, solved their cheating issues?The previous in house, non kernel level anti cheat EA / Dice used for the Battlefield series actually worked against cheaters, and worked on Linux. Battlefield 1 and V didn't have big cheating issues, as long as EA / Dice kept the anti cheat updated. Battlefield V, which I have the most experience with over 1, didn't start having terrible cheating issues until EA / Dice dropped support for it shortly after Battlefield 2042 release.
I'd be curious to know what Valve thinks about the situation, regarding the Steam Deck...
I really don't understand why EA and other companies are pushing for the kernel level anti cheat when the non kernel level actually did work well. Maybe its less work for them or maybe because kernel level is the current hot fad in the industry I don't know outside it really sucks massively for Linux and in terms of stopping cheating, non kernel level actually worked.
I wouldn't let them off the hook as being ignorant for the simple reason it hurts Linux so much that the rhetoric of them being hostile is 100% justified because kernel level anti cheat is hostile to Linux. So many games that would otherwise work don't because of that stupid anti cheat.
That said, I wonder if its possible to create whatever kernel emulation within the Linux kernel itself that allows these anti cheat drivers to interface with and work. I remember back in the day for wifi drivers there was this thing called "ndiswrapper" that allowed Windows XP wifi drivers to work on Linux. Maybe something similar can be done for anti cheat.
Last edited by drdindu2 on 23 October 2024 at 3:56 pm UTC
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Early Access Anti-Cheat for Battlefield what? OOhhh, EA the company?
Don't care, I don't buy/play games from them
Don't care, I don't buy/play games from them
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Quoting: Leahi84Not really enough of a reason to pass up sales.Quoting: BeamboomQuoting: Leahi84What I don't understand is why are these companies so hostile towards Linux?
This is such a common misconception. They are not hostile. Why should a corporation be hostile against anything really.
They are ignorant towards Linux, that's what they are. The Linux segment is so miniscule, and the cheating problem so massive, so the potential loss is nothing compared to not holding the cheaters at bay.
Because free anything goes against their capitalistic principals and is an affront to them?
That said, corporations are sometimes what can only be described as hostile towards certain things. Maybe it got started by a CEO, maybe it's become part of the corporate culture because said thing is inherently dangerous to the corporation's profits, but the phenomenon definitely exists. In the old days, Microsoft was definitely hostile towards Linux--no ifs, ands or buts, hostility was very definitely happening and a sizable deal for them. "Linux is a cancer" and all that. Since then, on the desktop side they got less worried because their measures to contain Linux succeeded pretty well, and on the server side they gave in, realized Linux was unstoppable, and changed their business model so they could make money from Linux. So they're not exactly hostile towards Linux any more . . . mostly, probably.
But yeah, the anti-cheat thing is generally not about hostility to Linux, except maybe when it comes to Epic, because Sweeney does actively dislike Linux as far as I can tell, partly just because he's a dick and his instincts go against open source ideas, partly because Valve likes Linux so he's going to dislike it. But everyone else is just doing their thing and accidentally stepping on a mouse in the process.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 23 October 2024 at 4:42 pm UTC
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Caldathras Oct 23
Doesn't really affect me. I don't like multiplayer games, can't play first-person shooters 
and much of what EA makes these days doesn't appeal to me.
and much of what EA makes these days doesn't appeal to me.
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Quoting: Leahi84What I don't understand is why are these companies so hostile towards Linux? It seems completely illogical for late stage capitalist corporations to turn away potential earnings no matter how small when their investors demand endless growth.
its one of 3 things:
1)we are everything they seek to destroy, imagine if players get used to the openes of linux and start demanding more products to be that open? they wouldnt be able to milk their users for over priced skins, gambling pay to win, FOMO daily login rewards (because the games arent fun enough to make people want to play everyday without bribe), etc...
2)microsoft paid then to sabotage us, while then thenselves keep their hands clean, and above all suspicious because their own games support linux.
3)making an anti cheat solution that work in an open source operating system is really hard, even kernel level anticheats wouldnt do much since we can just customize the kernel anyway.
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Quoting: LoudTechieThe question is why does everybody use BattleEye, to actively break linux.
I mean all the other anti-cheats offer just as much support for breaking it.
This way the Wine people only have to implement the behavior BattleEye(Windows only edition) depends on.
Not that I'm complaining, but it sounds stupid.
I would assume it's the same reason things like google drive, and similar cloud storage, avoid making official linux clients. The general idea is that linux users are more savvy, and therefor, more likely to use the services to their maximum extent, and for storage using all of what you pay for is considered a bad thing.
In anti-cheat context, I can only assume they're specifically targeting "savvy".
Obviously all of that happens anyway, probably nearly immediately.
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Good thing I finished most of the missions before this crap was added and since I have Geforce Now, I can continue playing it if I wanted to but at the end, I had no interest in the multiplayer mode.
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Guess in need to get better at Enlisted on my Steamdeck 
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This is why I don't see Proton as a substitute for proper support. Because if they don't actually support the platform, they could break it at any time and say you're outta luck.
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They will either revert the change in a few months or make that compatible with linux
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Quoting: dibzQuoting: LoudTechieThe question is why does everybody use BattleEye, to actively break linux.
I mean all the other anti-cheats offer just as much support for breaking it.
This way the Wine people only have to implement the behavior BattleEye(Windows only edition) depends on.
Not that I'm complaining, but it sounds stupid.
I would assume it's the same reason things like google drive, and similar cloud storage, avoid making official linux clients. The general idea is that linux users are more savvy, and therefor, more likely to use the services to their maximum extent, and for storage using all of what you pay for is considered a bad thing.
In anti-cheat context, I can only assume they're specifically targeting "savvy".
Obviously all of that happens anyway, probably nearly immediately.
Ofcourse they're breaking it because they fear tech savvy users, but why put all your eggs in one basket.
Easy Anti Cheat can break it on Linux too and it's just as hard.
Most anti-cheat providers can break on Linux if that is a feature you want, why use only Battle Eye for it.
Edit: found the answer.
The premise is false: other anti-cheats are used for this.
Last edited by LoudTechie on 24 October 2024 at 9:09 pm UTC
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Quoting: missingnoThis is why I don't see Proton as a substitute for proper support. Because if they don't actually support the platform, they could break it at any time and say you're outta luck.
Ah, but this is support.
They actively develop for Linux(to break it).
"Not supported" means that you're not going to put effort in functionality for the platform, breaking is functionality, from the perspective of Epic Games it's even desired functionality.
Native games also drop support all the time, so support doesn't mean that much.
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TheRiddick Oct 24
Quoting: missingnoThis is why I don't see Proton as a substitute for proper support. Because if they don't actually support the platform, they could break it at any time and say you're outta luck.
EAC, BE... all work via proton, it just needs a simple flag set on the AC servers.
Sure you loose kernel-level-end-user-backdoor'ing, but IMO that is such a terrible policy to have around given all the security breaches as of late.
These are just thoughtless corporations doing thoughtless things as usual.
The first thing you should do when considering any anti-cheat is
1) Will this cause any compatibility problems for customers
2) Will this open us up to legal litigation. (in case of backdoor, yes it can)
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Quoting: finaldestEA is another corp that will NEVER EVER get any money from me ever again.
This is why I don't buy games which are multiplayer only games and especially online service games with anti cheat DRM.
And changing the Terms and Conditions of sale after a sale has occurred, This needs to be challenged in court as its getting out of hand.
There is no legal basis to sue. Linux was almost certainly not on the supported OS list. The fact that you chose to by the game and try to run it on an unsupported system is not covered by the contract of sale.
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Quoting: posthum4nAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
So you're playing Serious Sam now?
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