Apex Legends, one of the leading names in the Battle Royale genre, has offered its players the opportunity to play games on Linux and Steam Deck for a long time. This was made possible thanks to Easy Anti-Cheat. However, EA and developer Respawn Entertainment have officially ended this support due to cheating and exploit issues.
“During our anti-cheat efforts at Apex, we found that the Linux operating system provides a breeding ground for a variety of effective exploits and cheats,” EA said in a community update. Therefore, we decided to block Linux OS from accessing the game. “While this decision will affect a small portion of Apex players, we believe it will significantly reduce the incidence of cheating in our game.”
Situation of Linux Users
The number of users legitimately playing games on Linux and Steam Deck was a consideration for the health of the Apex Legends community. EA stated that “Although the number of Linux users is small, this negatively affects the gaming experience of many players.” He emphasized that the open source operating system creates an attractive target for cheaters and cheat developers. Some hackers have developed various methods to avoid detection by imitating the tricks used on Windows as if they were on Linux.
Following this sudden decision, Linux users will no longer be able to access Apex Legends. This means that Steam Deck users whose default operating system is Linux will also be excluded from this free-to-play game. However, users will be able to play the game again when they install Windows on their devices.