Electronic Arts has blocked Steam Deck players from its cooperative shooter, Apex Legends.
Stating that “the openness of the Linux operating systems makes it an attractive one for cheaters and cheat developers”, EA has determined that making its game available on the Linux system – such as Apex Legends – is “a path for a variety of impactful exploits and cheats.”
Developer Respawn said it was left with no choice given there is “no reliable way” to differentiate between legitimate Steam Deck players and “a malicious cheat claiming to be a Steam Deck”.
“We’re sharing today that Linux (and Steam Deck using Linux) will no longer be able to access Apex Legends,” said community manager, Mako.
“Our dev team wanted to provide a bit more context into this and share some of the decision-making process that happened along the way. As mentioned in our prior anti-cheat dev blog, competitive integrity is a top priority for our team and there are many ways in which we’re battling cheaters – this is one to add to the list.