The Steam Deck is something of a talisman for gaming on Linux, its popularity and penguin-powered SteamOS having almost singlehandedly dragged it past MacOS as the second-most-used operating system among Steam users. Sadly, this also means the Valve handheld is the primary casualty when developers decide to stop bothering with Linux support, as Respawn Entertainment have decided to do for Apex Legends.
According to a post on EA’s tech support hub, Respawn’s immediate culling of ApeLeg’s Linux support – which, to be clear, effectively renders it unplayable on SteamOS – is a well-meaning sacrifice to the anti-cheat pantheon. The post explains that Linux is particularly vulnerable to exploitation by hacker types, due to it not allowing anti-cheat measures access to the deep, dark levels of OS kernel space that they typically need to block non-kosher modifications.
“We had to weigh the decision on the number of players who were legitimately playing on Linux/the Steam Deck versus the greater health of the population of players for Apex,” it reads. “While the population of Linux users is small, their impact infected a fair amount of players’ games. This ultimately brought us to our decision today.”
Yeah. I dunno. While it is technically true that Linux is more protective of its kernel space than Windows (ironically, this is in part to ensure all its drivers remain open source), I’ve been playing Apex Legends since it released nearly six years ago, and I’ve been rolled over by a passing aimbotter… twice? Maybe thrice? I’ve never felt the impression that its legit playerbase is being held at the mercy of a horde of rampaging Linux abusers. As such, it’s hard to agree that effectively banning an entire operating system, taking out the world’s most widely played handheld PC in the process, is a proportionate response.
For bonus bafflement, Respawn have previously been unusually supportive of the Deck, working with Valve back in 2021 to improve SteamOS compatibility with Easy Anti-Cheat and earn Apex a coveted Steam Deck Verified badge. Today, that cheerful green tick is replaced by the grumpy grey of Unsupported status. And that’s saying nothing of the small (but, if they’re still playing a shooter from 2019, loyal) contingent of desktop Linux/SteamOS players who’ve now been locked out as well.
Windows-based handhelds, like the Asus ROG Ally series and the recent Zotac Zone, are unaffected.