Apex Legends Loses Steam Deck Support Due To Cheating Concerns

Apex Legends is no longer supported on Steam Deck or Linux as a result of cheating, according to EA.

“Linux is used by default on the Steam Deck,” an EA community manager wrote in a post announcing the change. “There is currently no reliable way for us to differentiate a legitimate Steam Deck from a malicious cheat claiming to be a Steam Deck (via Linux).”

Apex Legends introduced Steam Deck support in March 2022, making it one of the only battle royales available to Steam Deck users. The same year, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said that there were no current plans to make Fortnite accessible on Steam Deck, citing the very same anti-cheat concerns EA is now raising regarding Apex.

“The openness of the Linux operating systems makes it an attractive one for cheaters and cheat developers,” EA’s post continues. “Linux cheats are indeed harder to detect and the data shows that they are growing at a rate that requires an outsized level of focus and attention from the team for a relatively small platform. There are also cases in which cheats for the Windows OS get emulated as if it’s on Linux in order to increase the difficulty of detection and prevention.”

Ultimately, EA “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.” The Apex Legends publisher says that although the number of players using Linus isn’t particularly large, “their impact infected a fair amount of players’ games.”

EA recently announced it was working to future-proof the game in the hopes of ensuring Apex Legends remains playable for “10 to 15 years,” and developer Respawn Entertainment has increased anti-cheat improvement efforts in recent months. The sudden move to revoke Linux support is likely a part of EA’s efforts to stabilize the game ahead of Season 23’s launch.

But there is one option for Apex players who don’t want to abandon their Steam Decks: installing Windows.

“Playing on handhelds, such as the Steam Deck, is still possible if the user opts to install Windows,” EA’s post noted.