Valve’s $400 Steam Deck gaming handheld runs Linux, but it can play Windows games too. Many of them, anyhow! Some of the biggest games on Steam use anti-cheat software that doesn’t play nice with the Proton compatibility layer which lets Windows games work. That’s changing this year, with both Epic’s Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and BattlEye confirming to The Verge that support is on the way, and Epic says it takes “just a few clicks.” Valve says BattlEye support is as easy as an email.
But will game developers let their games take advantage? Not necessarily! We reached out to every developer of every top EAC and BattlEye game on Steam. Initially, only four of them gave us a definite yes, but it seems we’ve got at least one more on the way.
Here’s the current status of each.
7 Days to Die — No comment
“We have no comment on it at this time. Our game is still in development. As we are still in Alpha, we are not ready to give a definitive yes or no at this time,” a spokesperson for developer The Fun Pimps tells The Verge.
Apex Legends — No answer yet
“We’re checking with the Respawn team on this and will get back to you as soon as we have an update,” a rep told The Verge on September 28th. We haven’t heard back since.
Ark: Survival Evolved — Complete, November 2021
“Yes, we plan to update ARK settings to enable Battleye’s anti-cheat tweak for Steam Deck,” a Studio Wildcard rep told The Verge. In November, Valve revealed that Ark had already gained support.
Black Desert — No answer yet
“I’m checking with our devs right now and will get back to you with an answer asap,” a Pearl Abyss rep told The Verge on October 3rd. We haven’t heard back since.
DayZ — Tentatively yes
DayZ was originally a maybe, but the answer is now basically a yes. “If it’s all working as intended, we do mean to enable Battleye anti-cheat support for Proton/Linux,” a Bohemia Interactive rep tells The Verge, saying that the team wants to test and make sure the change won’t cause issues.
The original reply was less promising: “At this stage it’s a ‘maybe’ for us – we are still evaluating Proton as a whole and cannot yet commit to anything,” a rep told The Verge in October.
Dead by Daylight — Yes
“I can confirm that we plan on updating our EAC to support the Steam Deck in the future, but we can’t confirm a release date at this time,” a Behaviour Interactive rep tells The Verge.
Destiny 2 — No answer yet
“We’ve been trying to run this down. We don’t have anything to share right now, today, but we’ll keep at it,” a Bungie rep told The Verge on October 3rd. We haven’t heard back since.
Fall Guys — No comment
Even though it’s owned by Epic Games, the company saying EAC support should take “just a few clicks,” Mediatonic would not commit to an update for Fall Guys.
“Thanks for reaching out but at this time we won’t be making a comment,” a Mediatonic rep tells The Verge.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection — No comment
“I won’t have anything to share here, I’m afraid,” a rep for Microsoft tells The Verge.
Hunt: Showdown — No reply whatsoever
Crytek didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.
Paladins and Smite — Maybe, but not this year
“We don’t currently have a timeline available but hope to provide such support in the near future,” a Hi-Rez Studios rep tells The Verge, adding:
While we have been actively doing some research on the topic, it is unlikely this support would happen by the Steamdeck launch in December. Even though our games do share some similarities, each one of them requires its own implementation that is significantly more delicate than changing some settings in the SDK. Hi-Rez is proud to have its games available on multiple platforms and consoles, so we hope to be able to provide such support in the near future.
PUBG — No comment
“The team does not have a comment for this,” a rep for Krafton tells The Verge. We got no reply after reaching out again in November. PUBG uses BattlEye, and Valve claims enabling it for Proton is as easy as sending an email.
Rainbow Six: Siege — No comment
“We don’t have anything to share at this time,” a Ubisoft rep tells The Verge. We got no reply after reaching out again in November. R6 Siege uses BattlEye, and Valve claims enabling it for Proton is as easy as sending an email.
Rust — Yes
“Yeah we’re working on it. Hoping to be done by the time the Deck comes out, if not it’ll be really soon after,” Facepunch Studios founder Garry Newman tells The Verge.
War Thunder — Yes
“Yes, we’re planning to do everything we can to make sure that War Thunder works on Steam Deck,” Gaijin Entertainment co-founder Anton Yudinsev tells The Verge.
We’ll update this story as more top games offer a yes or no on support for anti-cheat on Linux/Proton generally, and the Steam Deck specifically.
Update, November 9th: Upgraded DayZ to a tentative yes, and pointed out the lack of reply from other developers.