Linux gamers had a few worries recently after rumors broke out that Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) may no longer end up getting support for future games. The story, originally reported by GamingOnLinux, led to concerns among the Linux userbase. It also led to qualms about the role played by Epic Games in all of this.

The Story Back Then

Valve announced Steam Play support for Linux users via Proton back in August 2018. The move was met with much excitement. Even though Linux users currently comprise only 0.81 percent of the entire Steam player base, they still remain a very dedicated group.

In October 2018, Epic Games acquired Kamu, the makers of Easy Anti-Cheat. Even after the acquisition and around February 2019, Valve and the EAC team were still working on additional support for Linux games running via Steam Play emulation. So far, so good, right?

So where did it all go wrong? Well, Epic — specifically Epic’s move to shift games away from Steam and onto its own storefront via exclusivity — caused a few issues. From Metro Exodus to Rocket League, Epic’s aggressive acquisition of games has become a grave cause for concern.

Fast forward to the present, and even EAC for Linux games became embroiled in the controversy. You can check out one such Twitter thread below from user @Taciturasa:

Epic bought Easy Anti-Cheat a few months back. Before that, Valve had been talking with them for Linux support Today, they announced all efforts to get it working under Linux have been halted. Sweeney has compared using Linux to leaving to Canada. — adriene (@taciturasa) May 5, 2019

The Story So Far

So, what exactly happened?

The story came from an innocuous Reddit comment by Garry Newman — yes, that Garry Newman, founder of Facepunch Studios (the makers of Rust and, of course, Garry’s Mod). Yesterday, Newman was talking about the issues that the studio faced while continuing to support Rust for Linux. The biggest issue, he saw, was “EAC pausing their Linux support.”

Newman’s comments circulated around the internet. From there — a single Reddit comment — things spiraled out of control. The story became somewhere along the lines of: “Epic Games acquired Kamu/EAC to ruin Steam and attack Linux gamers.”

That Twitter post you see above? That went viral. YouTubers began to speculate, and so out came the videos. Reddit, naturally, was Reddit.

The Actual Story

Today, Garry Newman himself replied on Reddit when I asked for clarifications. Newman shed light on his earlier statements, as he was the primary source for the entire story: