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While I can understand why these kinds of developments happen, it still makes me a bit sad to see. It was announced today that Battlefield V will officially be getting the EA Anti-Cheat on April 3rd, marking the end of the game running on the Steam Deck or Linux computers. This is a bit of a shame, considering the game could run on the Deck with Proton GE 7-55, but it looks like that won't be possible anymore.
EA Anti-Cheat is a kernel-level service that is used to stop cheaters and tampering with their products. Unfortunately, this digs into the computer's kernel, which isn't something that is supported on Linux devices, and this includes the Steam Deck. We saw a couple of EA games get it so far, like Battlefield 2042 and Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2, and each one is now completely unplayable on Deck. The latter of the two ran quite well, too, but unfortunately, it will no longer be enjoyed this way.
EA seems to be going through their multiplayer games and adding in this anti-cheat, which is a little alarming. In the FAQ that was posted by EA, they mention that more cheaters are turning to kernel-level cheats in their games, and this is their solution. Hopefully, we won't see this move over to Apex Legends, since that currently uses Easy Anti-Cheat, which is supported on Linux devices. Now that would be a huge let down if it ever happened.
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I'm pretty sure EA's motto is "Take their money and then give them the middle finger later."