Some big titles that were previously playable on Linux aren't anymore, including Grand Theft Auto: V (Online), Apex Legends, Roblox, and League of Legends. While this is clearly a problem for players on those platforms, it's an even bigger issue for those who bought something like a Steam Deck to play those games. The reason cited is usually thanks to the introduction of a Windows-only anti-cheat, like Vanguard with League of Legends. One of the first to actually say that their blocking of Linux players was a positive for the game was Respawn, though, with claims that cheating has reduced since Linux users were prevented from playing.

Does Linux disproportionately give rise to cheaters?

It's unclear

Before delving into Respawn's claims, it's important to address the issue of cheaters on Linux. Linux certainly makes it harder for anti-cheat developers to operate effectively. Windows is a fairly uniform environment, with Linux machines coming in all kinds of forms. From different kernels, system libraries, and even package managers, there's a lot more to account for than a simple Windows install.

On top of that, Linux gives significantly more control to the user to modify the system in any way that they see fit. You can even install your own modified Linux kernel if you want, and root access gives significantly more control over the system to the user than you'll easily get on Windows. It's possible to modify the game process, spoof system calls, or run the game in a virtualized environment without it being easily detected by the game.

In the past, there have certainly been cheats that have been built for Linux versions of games, such as AimTux in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive eight years ago. While this cheat went undetected for a long time, it only ran on Linux and required the user to build it themself. It didn't do anything complicated though, aside from running as root in order to inject itself into the process.

There hasn't been a lot of data in either way to suggest that cheating on Linux is out of control. In fact, Apex Legends has plenty of cheats available for Windows users, including open-source cheats built for Windows that are shared on forums and on GitHub. They'll eventually be caught and the users will be banned, but it's not as if Respawn is even on top of the cheating situation on Windows, let alone Linux.

Respawn's own data is murky

An unlabeled graph?

The only official data we have from Respawn on the "meaningful reduction" of cheaters in its game is the single graph shared by the Respawn account. The company claims that the rate of matches that had a cheater present had reduced since Linux support was removed, but that's not the whole picture. In fact, cheating was clearly in decline before support was removed, and in the same graph, cheating is actually shown to be back on the rise again.

It's clear that Respawn added additional protection measures that aren't just removing Linux support, and in fact, those may be responsible for the initial rate of decline. On top of that, there were around 80,000 fewer players on December 6th, the day they shared that data, than at the start of November according to Steam Charts. Respawn's graph has no labels for either the time period or the actual reduction in cheaters, so we can only make assumptions about absolute numbers.

Given that support for Linux ended at the end of October, the drop in cheaters clearly coincides with the continued decrease in players that has seen 80,000 players stop playing the game over the course of November. Given that, it's clear that a reduction in cheaters can also coincide with a general decrease in the player base. Using the graph, if the downturn after Linux support was removed is representative of a 33% reduction in cheaters, I have calculated that the drop beforehand was roughly 20%. This is not going to be completely accurate (as I measured verticality in the graph using individual pixels to count) but should be generally representative.

As well, Respawn says that this was the "rate" of games that had a cheater, which suggests that it was a number of cheaters per X number of games, but then that decrease in cheating can again be attributed to the other actions Respawn took. Especially when cheating was already declining before Linux support was removed. The data the company provided doesn't really justify the claim that removing Linux support decreased cheating numbers, as there aren't enough hard figures given to actually explain what happened.

I reached out to Respawn in the course of writing this article but did not hear back at the time of writing. I will update this article if I receive a response.

Removing Linux support is user-hostile

And could be a sign of more at play

There are plenty of games that have removed Linux support in recent months and even years, and it's undoubtedly a user-hostile practice. In fact, you could take a step further to allege that companies could do it to spite Valve, as it prevents the Steam Deck from playing those games and pushes gamers towards Windows. Respawn is owned by EA, and EA runs its own games store called EA Desktop. A move like this damages Valve's ability to say that the Steam Deck can play popular games on Steam and bolsters Microsoft when it comes to market share amongst gamers.

Not only that, though, this practice could potentially be used to bolster other allies in the PC gaming space. If EA had a vested interest in the success of the Asus ROG Ally X, for example, then this move would push Apex Legends players towards Windows-based handhelds like that one instead of the Steam Deck. I'm not saying that this is happening (nor do I believe that it is), but it's hard to overlook the fact that this kind of move harms Valve's vision of Windows no longer being the only operating system you can play games on.

Plus, there are gamers that only play on Linux, and this move harms them the most. If you spent money on microtransactions in a game that could no longer run on the main system you played it on, you'd be pretty annoyed, too. Even worse, the data Respawn released doesn't even tell the full story, which is arguably worse than not saying anything at all.

For what it's worth, I personally believe that the move was done in an attempt to deal with the so-called "rampant" cheaters in Apex Legends, and I don't believe that it was done to bolster allies or to impact Valve. It's a slippery slope though, and it's not out of the question a company may try to do that in the future with actual nefarious intent. For now, the only way to play the game is to use Windows, and it's a shame for anyone who loved to play it on their Steam Deck or a Linux PC.