Steam Deck gets its first official anti-cheat support from Epic Games

It's really happening.

What you need to know

• Epic Games has announced that its Easy Anti Cheat service is now available to use on Linux.
• The popular anti-cheat software was previously exclusive to Windows, and also becomes available on Mac.
• The Steam Deck is an obvious winner as Easy Anti Cheat will also work with WINE and Proton.

One of the big flies in the Steam Deck ointment has always been how anti-cheat software will be handled. The truth is that a lot of the popular Windows games that can't be played on Linux through Steam's Proton Compatibility layer, or through WINE, are because of anti-cheat software.

The first big step forward has just happened, though, right as game developers are starting to receive their Steam Deck dev kits. Epic Games, owner of Easy Anti Cheat, has announced that the software is now compatible with Linux, including WINE and Proton, as well as macOS. And all for the low price of free.

"To make it easy for developers to ship their games across PC platforms, support for the Wine and Proton compatibility layers on Linux is included. Starting with the latest SDK release, developers can activate anti-cheat support for Linux via Wine or Proton with just a few clicks in the Epic Online Services Developer Portal."

It isn't an automatic affair, there is still minimal work to be done by the developers. But if a few clicks are all it takes to provide anti-cheat and Linux/Steam Deck compatibility, there's not much of an excuse to ignore it. Epic did all the hard work.

So, what games use Easy Anti Cheat that you might be interested in? Plenty as it happens, you only have to glance at the partner page to see some big hitters. One of the most obvious from a Steam Deck perspective is Apex Legends, because it'll almost certainly run well on the Steam Deck hardware. Gears 5, New World, Fall Guys, Halo Master Chief Collection, the list is long and the possibility of playing some of these titles on the Steam Deck is mouthwatering.

Epic Games has been in the press a lot lately, but this time they're definitely deserving of a pat on the back.

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Steam Deck

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Wanted more places to play your Steam library? Now you'll be able to with the Steam Deck. This machine comes in three iterations, each allowing you to play your games locally and portably.