Respawn goes on the offensive to combat Apex hacking—but at a cost to Linux users

Another day, another update from the Apex Legends security team about the fight against hackers. It’s a never-ending struggle for the battle royale, and the latest change from developer Respawn Entertainment is decidedly bad news for Linux users.

In an attempt to help further stamp out the game’s cheating problem, Respawn is making Apex unavailable to play on Linux operating systems completely. This comes with the knock-on effect of also making it much harder to play the game on Steam Deck, since the device uses Linux to run by default. Steam Deck users can download Windows for the device, which would make it still possible—but playing a game as intensive as Apex on Steam Deck was already a chore, and anyone using the device likely won’t bother. In a short post on the subject, the security team said Linux OS was “identified as being a path for a variety of impactful exploits and cheats.” The team decided the best way to deal with these cheats was to remove access to the game for Linux users altogether.

Respawn noted how Linux’s open operating system makes it a very good one for cheat developers to use, and for cheaters to implement their cheats in game, and also stated how Linux cheats are more difficult for their systems to detect.

There’s also the issue of how many cheats are coming from Linux, according to Respawn. “Linux cheats are indeed harder to detect and the data shows that they are growing at a rate that requires an outsized level of focus and attention from the team for a relatively small platform,” Respawn stated. Obviously, the team felt that sacrificing players who might not return to Apex without the ability to play on their operating system of choice was worth it to help its security team keep up with the curve of cheats coming into the game. Linux users make up about four percent of the world’s operating systems, according to sites like StatCounter, while Micrsoft Windows dominates at 73 percent market share and Apple takes up most of the rest at 15 percent. With gamers using Linux likely representing a similarly small portion of the total playerbase, Respawn decided to cut the cord.

Understandably, the news hasn’t gone over well with the Linux users on Apex.

Many players called the argument “nonsense,” while others questioned if Respawn would be delivering refunds for skins and other cosmetics to Linux users who could no longer play. The answer to that last question seems like a resounding “probably not,” given the general accessibility of the game on other platforms.

On the other hand, other players thought the move was a good one, considering the cheating issue over the last couple of seasons has helped drive the game’s playerbase to some record-low numbers, if Steam Charts is anything to go off of.

A new season should be on the way shortly, and the game needs it to be a big one if it’s going to recover from big losses over the past couple seasons.