Summary of “Anti Cheat at Embark Studios” prensentation by Embark Studios Senior Software Engineer Tom van Dijck, at devcom in Germany on August 24.
… Linux presents an even worse situation. Because users can custom-build the OS kernel, embedding a cheat directly into the kernel and compiling it makes it nearly impossible for a game to detect its existence. “How do you detect that?” van Dijck asked, adding that while support for SteamOS and Proton will remain, platform requirements will become stricter.
Though he mentions anti-cheat on Linux being more challenging to implement that on Windows, he doesn’t seem to think that it’s impossible. He goes on to talk about “undetectable” cheating hardware becoming cheaper, which sounds like a bigger problem, but he sounds optimistic about being able to detect those as well.
IMO “platform requirements will become stricter” could mean something like only allowing signed kernels with anti-cheat module built in + secure boot.
This is just a blatantly wrong conspiracy, it’s just that companies don’t think there are enough players on Linux to justify working on and maintaining a Linux version of the anticheat. It’s not that deep.
But they are working on a Linux version of the anticheat, it’s just prioritized lower than getting the game running smoothly for Windows users. I wouldn’t give them any money before I see it with my own eyes, but the devs said they were hoping for Linux/Proton support “ASAP after launch” (presumably the EA launch on the 10th)