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Steam Deck compatibility conundrum partially solved with Easy Anti-Cheat supportMultiplayer games just got a lot more Deck-friendly
Multiplayer games just got a lot more Deck-friendly
TheSteam Deckhas just broken through a major compatibility barrier: one that would have made it difficult for some of Steam’s most-played multiplayer games to properly function on the Valve handheld. Gabe and co. have Epic to thank for this one, though, as the latter’sEasy Anti-Cheat(EAC) tech is nowextending support to Linux and it Wine and Proton compatibility layers. The same layers, you may recall, that the Steam Deck relies on to run games without native Linux ports. In other words, games with multiplayer components that wouldn’t have worked on the Steam Deck - because their use of EAC precluded Linux/Wine/Proton compatibility - should, in theory, be able to run in full.
Valve Steam Deck Announced | Steam Deck NewsWatch on YouTube
Valve Steam Deck Announced | Steam Deck News
It could also spell good news for future Steam releases. EAC is free to developers and relatively easy to implement, so is likely to be the anti-cheat of choice for many more games to come; as such, issues arising from a lack of compatible anti-cheat might not be as common.
With Valve’s own VAC and now EAC clearing the way, one notable anti-cheat holdout is BattlEye. This would currently hamstring some of Steam’s other most popular online games, includingPlunkbatandRainbow Six Siege, much in the same way that EAC would before Epic brought it to Deck-ready platforms. However, Valve has said it’s working with BattlEye’s developers to get it running on Proton in time for the Deck’s launch at the end of this year, so there’s reason to hope.
Valve’s ambition to have every game on Steam run on the Steam Deck has certainly bumped into the hard technological realities of it using an OS that most games just weren’t built for. Even the president of Proton development house CodeWeavers suggested it wasunlikely that the portable PC will run every Steam game at launch. Even so, it does look like things are on the right track, as EAC has hopefully just plugged some very big holes in the Steam Deck’s catalogue of compatible multiplayer games.
