Electronic Arts announced Thursday that it’ll be removing Steam Deck and Linux players’ access to its battle royale Apex Legends in an effort to combat cheating, effective immediately.

In a post on the Apex Legends forums (spotted by The Verge) an EA spokesperson said it made this decision as part of its anti-cheat efforts. Basically, EA found that many of the exploits and cheats it’s trying to combat came through Linux distros. So it decided to block access for Linux users. And since Steam Deck runs on Linux by default (SteamOS is built from Debian and uses a layer called Proton to make Windows and Mac games compatible), that meant Steam Deck had to go.

“We 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. While the population of Linux users is small, their impact infected a fair amount of players’ games. This ultimately brought us to our decision today,” the post read.

Granted, if you load up your Steam Deck with Windows, you could play Apex Legends. It just won’t work through the default launcher. You can also still play it through Steam on PC.

EA previously reported in August that it’s banned over 6 million accounts since launch, with over 100,000 banned on average each month. Currently, it uses Easy Anti-Cheat to monitor cheating in the game, along with its other titles.

This isn’t the first time a AAA title has been removed from the Steam Deck due to anti-cheat measures. Last month, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Grand Theft Auto Online were also removed from Steam Deck after integrating BattlEye Anti-Cheat, although Rockstar didn’t clarify what about it was incompatible.

Related Posts

Your charging cable might get a workout if you try ‘Charchery’

The concept is as simple as it is destructive: you plug your charger into the phone to nock an arrow, and you physically yank it out to fire. It is undeniably clever, bizarre, and almost certainly a terrible idea for the longevity of your hardware.

Your Fable reboot preview is here, open world Albion looks gloriously chaotic

The hook is familiar, your choices matter, people notice, and consequences linger. The difference is scale. This is a fully open world take, with townsfolk on routines who respond to what you do, even when you think no one’s watching. It’s still chasing that mix of heroics, petty crime, and dry British humor, only with modern action RPG muscle.

Nintendo’s latest product wants to cheer you up with random quips

Nintendo first teased the Talking Flower during a Nintendo Direct showcase last September. The company has now shared more details about the product, and confirmed when it will officially go on sale. Based on the flowers in the Super Mario Bros. Wonder game, the Talking Flower is exactly what its name suggests: a potted flower that speaks around twice per hour, delivering lines like "Sometimes it's nice to space out" or "Bowser and his buds can't get us here, right?"