EA Exec Shoots Down Battlefield 6 on Steam Deck—Other Handhelds Allowed

[Cpt.Jank]

Following the recent Battlefield 6 multiplayer showcase that confirmed the existence of a UGC platform for the new shooter, EA's executive vice president, Vince Zampella, confirmed in an interview with PCGamesN that Battlefield 6 will not receive Steam Deck support. According to the executive, "It does not work on Steam Deck. I think there are some non-Steam-Deck handheld platforms that it will work on, probably, right? But I don't think, you know, it's probably not the best way to play the game."

This suggests that the reason for the lack of Steam Deck support comes down to incompatibility with SteamOS, rather than hardware limitations. The presumption is thus that Battlefield 6's EA anti-cheat still won't adopt Linux support. According to ProtonDB, 27% of Steam's current top 100 games work basically flawlessly with Valve's Proton compatibility layer, with an additional 52% receiving a "Gold" rating, which means the game runs basically perfectly using Proton with a little tweaking. Other gaming giants have also recently announced their intention to include Steam Deck and Linux compatibility in their upcoming titles, with Ubisoft being one notable example in recent months.


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[tpa-pr]

According to the recently released hardware requirements, a TPM module and Secure Boot is required. So I would say the incompatibility comes from the kernel-level anti-cheat for sure:

 

[regs]

What else did you expect from EA "exec"? They only care of bonuses. This corpo needs to get bankrupted to save gaming industry.

 

[GerKNG]

it will be infested with hackers before you set up your graphics settings on launch day...
it looks all right but i will never play another MP game ever again.

 

[Onasi]

EA can’t for their life say anything or make any decision that WON’T make them seem like one of the worst possible companies in the business. It’s like they are allergic to it. Not unexpected though.

 

[trsttte]

According to the recently released hardware requirements, a TPM module and Secure Boot is required. So I would say the incompatibility comes from the kernel-level anti-cheat for sure:
View attachment 410024

The steam deck can use both of those, the issue is windows (secure boot can also be a problem if they decide to be picky about self signed keys)

 

[Event Horizon]

it will be infested with hackers before you set up your graphics settings on launch day...
it looks all right but i will never play another MP game ever again.

I don't have faith that they can stop the infestation, but I'll be happy to be proven wrong.

 

[Hecate91]

EA has never really cared to stop cheaters, but the corpo suits love to market that they care about gamers. And kernel level spyware only harms the legit players, it is quite well known that cheaters can bypass TPM and secure boot.

 

[trsttte]

EA has never really cared to stop cheaters, but the corpo suits love to market that they care about gamers. And kernel level spyware only harms the legit players, it is quite well known that cheaters can bypass TPM and secure boot.

In this day and age you can have a seperate computer with a capture card analising the image and generating inputs to the gaming machine, there's simply no way to combat that. I don't understand why someone would do that or what fun could they possibly have but yeah, it's a thing.

 

[O.0]

Linux aimbots ruin cashflow ecosystem, otherwise Cyberpunk wouldn't be on it, given that more platforms more players. Execs down-washing specs like an inconvenience is a certified classic

 

[Patriot]

aimbots ruin cashflow ecosystem, otherwise Cyberpunk wouldn't be on it, given that more platforms more players. Execs down-washing specs like an inconvenience is a certified classic

ftfy

kernel level anticheat ah, so they have given up on stopping cheaters already.
Going for a great wall approach rather than actually detecting them.

 

[ZoneDymo]

but you can run windows on steamdeck right? or does that zap performance too much?

 

[chrcoluk]

Why are they so obsessed with a kernel rootkit, just release the game without it.

 

[PLAfiller]

Well if it doesn't "stack" with the anti-cheat I guess it just can't run on the Steam. I just hope they don't p**sify the game as the current state of COD.....doesn't look like it from the trailer, but who knows....

 

[Chomiq]

I wish MS would put their foot down and say "No, you're not allowed to run kernel level shit on our OS" but they won't.

Well if it doesn't "stack" with the anti-cheat I guess it just can't run on the Steam. I just hope they don't p**sify the game as the current state of COD.....doesn't look like it from the trailer, but who knows....

Nothing to do with steam itself, it's hardware capabilities that prevent it from running on the Deck. Why exactly are they required for a kernel level anticheat - I don't know.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

might as well play with denuvo, the games anticheat is gonna suck resources.

 

[_roman_]

Thanks for the topic

TPM 2 / secure boot required. - > NOPE // I will not sign my own self made bootloader. I do not trust TPM2.

No money anyway for EA, Ubisoft, STEAM, EPIC so what.

 

[scottslayer]

EA could have just built their own version of AI Anticheat (not a meme) by now to actually counter cheaters but they need the control and data mining.

 

[mazitron]

What else did you expect from EA "exec"? They only care of bonuses. This corpo needs to get bankrupted to save gaming industry.

It works at stopping cheater so i say they deserve them bonuses because their is nothing worse in the gaming industry then cheaters.

 

[mazitron]

The for hate EA know no bounds in this comment section. Atleast their anti cheat program actually works. The game looks awesome and if by not allowing people on linux to use it stops the real enemy of the multiplayer games online the cheaters then i dont care. Just go play COD with all the other cheats.

 

[dia6olo]

I dual boot both Windows 11 and Linux, I spend all my time in Linux but use Windows 11 for gaming.
I know gaming is now a real thing in Linux but I'm quite happy to wait a little longer until some of those tiny remaining issues are resolved.
That said, any game that does not work on Linux because of anti-cheat will not receive any of my money even if I can play it on Windows, I simply refuse to support these companies!

 

[phints]

Another Linux fail. If idiot Linus Torvolds mandated a unified packaging manager, vulkan support, and worked better with Nvidia and AMD on better drivers 25 years ago this wouldn't be happening now. Good riddens Linux I'll stick with you for a router OS but Windows 11 blows it away on desktop.

 

[Patriot]

It works at stopping cheater so i say they deserve them bonuses because their is nothing worse in the gaming industry then cheaters.

None of the kernel anticheats stop the paid cheats. You are mental if you believe their claims and have never played any modern fps online, which almost all are using kernel anticheat. A great wall approach simply does not work... and sharing anticheat like easy ac just shares vulnerabilities. 0 faith in any anticheat that relies on a rootkit. It is a faulty design at its core.

 

[Hecate91]

Another Linux fail.

This isn't a Linux issue, it's an EA issue. EA could easily support Linux if they at all cared to, but these greedy corporations couldn't care less as long as they can market to appear like they do with kernel level anticheats which doesn't stop cheaters, and only hurts performance for normal players.
And in terms of performance, Linux is faster in gaming because W11 has become so incredibly bloated with AI and other forced garbage.

 

[Event Horizon]

Another Linux fail. If idiot Linus Torvolds mandated a unified packaging manager, vulkan support, and worked better with Nvidia and AMD on better drivers 25 years ago this wouldn't be happening now. Good riddens Linux I'll stick with you for a router OS but Windows 11 blows it away on desktop.

Somehow you managed to get everything wrong, including the name Torvalds. Are you okay?