Valve announced a change for Steam today that will make things a lot clearer for everyone, as developers will now need to clearly list the kernel-level anti-cheat used on Steam store pages.
In the Steamworks Developer post Valve said: "We've heard from more and more developers recently that they're looking for the right way to share anti-cheat information about their game with players. At the same time, players have been requesting more transparency around the anti-cheat services used in games, as well as the existence of any additional software that will be installed within the game."
Developers with games already on Steam will also need to do this, as it's not just for new games coming up for release, and it is also part of the release process now too. So Valve will be doing checks on games to ensure the notices are there and correct.
However, it's only being forced for kernel-level anti-cheat. If it's only client-side or server-side, it's optional, but Valve say "we generally think that any game that makes use of anti-cheat technology would benefit from letting players know".
Valve's example pictured below:
Some games don't properly remove everything when you uninstall either, with Valve noting this happens with older games, so it's nice to also see this will be noted too.
This should make it a bit easier knowing what to avoid on Steam Deck / Desktop Linux now too, since kernel-level anti-cheat games are usually blocked by the developer from running with Proton.
Valve have done a few rather interesting Steam updates lately like dealing with publisher banner spam, implementing improvements for Native Linux games, actually noting clearly when you go to purchase a game it's just a license and removing the need for individual arbitration.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: ElectricPrismReasons like these are why I continue to patron Steam and make it rain . No other store even comes close.
Quoting: Vortex_AcheronticAgreed. Steam and apparently Valve are awesome! I just hope they will not change direction some day in the future if maybe Lord GabeN is no more :/Yes, really great that they're notify about the shit they're distributing & installing on the user's PC. How forthcoming, I mean where would we be if they'd simply ban the stuff nobody wants.
Mohandevir about 12 hours ago
BlackBloodRum about 12 hours ago
Quoting: PyrateGreat news. Hopefully this starts a similar "game contains Denuvo" sentiment from Steam users (on Linux or otherwise), so that it slowly builds more disliking to the concept on a wide scale, not just Linux players.
You can follow this curator to mostly get that:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26095454-Denuvo-Games/
Quoting: PhlebiacQuoting: PyrateGreat news. Hopefully this starts a similar "game contains Denuvo" sentiment from Steam users (on Linux or otherwise), so that it slowly builds more disliking to the concept on a wide scale, not just Linux players.
You can follow this curator to mostly get that:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26095454-Denuvo-Games/
Yep, and we need something similar set up for kernel anticheat games now.
Quoting: PhiladelphusWhat does "requires manual removal" in the second screenshot mean?
Like any good old proper spyware, once it infests your kernel it won't just go away with a "pretty please".
Quoting: scaineWe Linux users have it lucky in that regard. We might still install the "rootkit/spyware" element in some cases, but because it's tied to Proton emulating (shut up pedants!) the Windows environment, when we stop the game, we also stop all the anti-cheat crap. In our cases, it only gets to run when the game is running.
And also, when we're fully done with the game, all we need to do is delete the prefix and any remnant traces of the anti-cheat crap will get thrown to the bin along with everything else. We really do have it better than Windows peeps in that regard :)
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