EA anticheat is a kernel level anticheat, which are generally bad for consumers due to them giving malware new targets to get full control of an infected system. Genshin Impact's kernel anticheat is famously targeted by ransomware as an easier way to gain control of user's PCs for example. They also don't work on Linux, which is an obvious problem for Steam Deck users.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
EA (Electronic Arts) are continuing to expand their home-grown EA Anti-Cheat, with an announcement that Battlefield 2042 is also moving over to it.
This isn't actually something entirely new though, as it was given a Deep Dive back in 2022 and released with Fifa 23 that same year, and it's also in the newly released EA SPORTS FC 24.
Part of the problem is that it doesn't work on Linux / Steam Deck, with it being blocked by EA.
So if they got Respawn to switch over to it, this would kill Apex Legends on Linux / Steam Deck too.
Fifa 23 and EA SPORTS FC 24 are rated Unsupported on Linux / Steam Deck due to it, and while Battlefield 2042 previously used Easy Anti-Cheat, they never bothered to hook up support for that on Linux anyway (even though EAC supports Linux), so it's just going to continue to be Unsupported.
We can only hope that Valve are keeping an eye on the situation and speak to EA to eventually get support for it on Linux / Steam Deck with Proton.
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