Valve says it’s been collaborating with Epic Games to make it easier than ever for developers who rely on Easy Anti-Cheat to release their games on the upcoming Steam Deck handheld.
Epic Games announced in September 2021 that it was expanding the availability of Easy Anti-Cheat to Linux and macOS, and the company specifically mentioned compatibility with the Steam Deck as well as the Proton technology that Valve’s using to make Windows games run on Linux. But this expansion was also said to be part of the Epic Online Services platform.
That seems to have changed. “Our team has been working with Epic on Easy Anti-Cheat + Proton support over the last few months,” Valve says, “and we’re happy to announce that adding Steam Deck support to your existing EAC games is now a simple process, and doesn’t require updating game binaries, SDK versions, or integration of [Epic Online Services].”
This is a victory for developers because it means porting their games to Valve’s latest hardware should be simpler—and will no longer require them to sign up for Epic Online Services. Epic Games, meanwhile, doesn’t have to worry about Easy Anti-Cheat being seen as the reason why people’s favorite games aren’t making their way to the Steam Deck. Everybody wins.
Steam Deck and Proton now support Easy Anti-Cheat and the BattlEye anti-cheat software used by games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Arma III, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, among others. Valve offers step-by-step instructions for developers looking to release titles featuring these anti-cheat systems on Steam Deck on the Steamworks Documentation website.
