EA AntiCheat could spell trouble for Steam Deck / Linux

EA has just recently given out more information on their upcoming EA AntiCheat (EAAC), not to be confused with Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC), because EA are apparently terribly at naming.

In their new Deep Dive, they went over various details about their new EAAC and how it will affect their games. The first big note is that it will be kernel-mode, which is usually something that doesn't play nicely (or at all) with Linux and so this could be some bad news for the Steam Deck too. Not only that, it's an anti-tamper tech too.

Take FIFA 22 for example, it's playable on Linux and has a "Playable" Steam Deck rating. However, FIFA 23 will be launching in October and guess what? It will have EA's new AntiCheat. So, this might mean it won't work at all.

It won't end up in every game from EA though, as they said in the post they will work with each studio to determine their needs. It also mentions for some titles they may only use "user-mode protections" (no kernel-level stuff) or just not have any at all.

A worrying trend though, with more and more anti-cheat going kernel-side which is almost always developed just for Windows. It's problematic for another reason though, like the recent issue with Genshin Impact where the anti-cheat driver was abused to disable anti-virus.

What do you think to this news?