PUBG’s Upcoming Anti-Cheat Measures Could Complicate Things For Steam Deck And Linux

You might’ve heard about the news that PUBG will be free for a few days or could even be free forever, and that’s great news for people who couldn’t afford the game earlier. However, this news may upset two groups of people — Steam Deck buyers and Linux users. Here’s why PUBG going free could create problems for Steam Deck and Linux.

PUBG On Steam Deck And Linux: New Anti-Cheat Measures

If you’re into gaming, you might know that PUBG uses an anti-cheat mechanism called BattlEye. The game also introduced a proprietary anti-cheat called Zakynthos in 2021, which is being improved to tighten up the defenses. Out of all the components in the anti-cheat system, kernel-level drivers can cause problems on Linux. These anti-cheat measures are similar to Valorant’s Vanguard, also kernel-level anti-cheat.

This could be a big deal because PUBG ranks third in the list of most popular games on Steam, and the game is currently borked on Linux due to the absence of anti-cheat mechanisms in Proton. This move was considered due to the game going free later this year, which might attract a lot of cheaters.

This news is even more disappointing because BattleEye and Easy Anti-cheat recently announced that they would be supporting Linux. Many players rejoiced that they would finally run games Like PUBG, Fortnite, and Apex Legends.

Judging by the player base, we’re sure that players were looking forward to trying out PUBG on Steam Deck, but that might not end up happening. However, all hope is not lost as Valve promised that Steam Deck would run almost all the games by the time it’ll be made available to the general public.

Also, judging by the number of preorders it receives, Krafton could decide to take back the measures as the handheld could potentially help them grow the game’s player base by a considerable margin.

Either way, what are your thoughts about the situation? Let us know in the comments section below.