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.
Philadelphus Oct 30
What does "requires manual removal" in the second screenshot mean?
Presumably, you need to crack the game yourself ;-)
What does "requires manual removal" in the second screenshot mean?Might be wrong, but I think some of these tools install outside of the game itself, adding themselves to the "add/remove software" tool in Windows, or whatever that's called these days.
So you install the game, it installs the kernel-based rootkit/spyware, you later uninstall the game, but the rootkit/spyware is still there, potentially still running at startup, until you remove it.
We 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.
ElectricPrism Oct 30
Steam games will now need to fully disclose kernel-level anti-cheat on store pages
Reasons like these are why I continue to patron Steam and make it rain
. No other store even comes close.(GOG is my second favorite. After the Internet is cancelled over "The New Red Scare" I'll happily be playing my mountain of games offline for quite some time.
What does "requires manual removal" in the second screenshot mean?Might be wrong, but I think some of these tools install outside of the game itself, adding themselves to the "add/remove software" tool in Windows, or whatever that's called these days.
So you install the game, it installs the kernel-based rootkit/spyware, you later uninstall the game, but the rootkit/spyware is still there, potentially still running at startup, until you remove it.
We 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.
Exactly, I played the Delta Force demo on my Windows machine during Steam Next Fest and later uninstalled it. Noticed that the "ACE" anti-cheat was still there with 3 services (ACE-BASE, ACE-GAME and a third one). They weren't running, but it's shady to leave the anti-cheat behind after the game has been uninstalled.
(Yes, I realize that installing kernel-level anti-cheat is insecure in the first place and at least in theory renders that machine compromised.)
Regarding the store page anti-cheat disclosure:
That's a fantastic change. Guess there's no chance to make it a bright red box?
Last edited by Schleichfahrt on 30 October 2024 at 8:58 pm UTC
Vortex_Acherontic Oct 30
Steam games will now need to fully disclose kernel-level anti-cheat on store pages
Reasons like these are why I continue to patron Steam and make it rain
(GOG is my second favorite. After the Internet is cancelled over "The New Red Scare" I'll happily be playing my mountain of games offline for quite some time.
Agreed. 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 :/
Reasons like these are why I continue to patron Steam and make it rain . No other store even comes close.
Agreed. 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 Oct 30
Great 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/
Great 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.
What 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".
We 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 :)
hardpenguin Oct 31
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