Update: Epic Games gave a response, it is not paused.

Original article:

I've just today been alerted to something that's quite worrying, according to Garry Newman from Facepunch Studios, Easy Anti-Cheat are "pausing" their Linux support.

As it turns out, Newman made this comment on Reddit on a submission that actually links back to my recent article about Rust. Newman said pretty clearly "The biggest issue as far as I can see is that EAC are pausing their Linux support, which is resulting in an increase in cheaters using the Linux version. This is a huge problem because it affects every other platform.".

This is the first I've heard of it and so it's quite alarming considering the amount of Linux games that actually use it like Rust, 7 Days to Die, Albion Online (which only recently started using it), Robocraft, Insurgency Sandstorm (which planned Linux support) and so on. Not just existing games but this will obviously cause major problems for any upcoming multiplayer game that was planning to support Linux if they were going to use EAC, as it might just cause them to drop Linux support.

Additionally, this could also cause even more problems for Valve's Steam Play although we don't know the full situation, they were supposed to be in talks to get Easy Anti-Cheat supported for it. This new information doesn't exactly give me confidence but perhaps Steam Play will be treated differently? Who knows.

Interestingly, Epic Games actually acquired the maker of Easy Anti-Cheat last year, so perhaps Linux is becoming a casualty of that? I'm not saying it is but it wouldn't surprise me.

I've reached out to Easy Anti-Cheat and Epic Games to find out what they have to say about it, if anything. Took EAC a while to reply last time and I don't expect an answer on a Sunday, so hold onto your hats. At least if it does turn out to be true, there's still VAC and BattlEye which do support Linux games as well as Steam Trust to come.

Frustratingly, this news also comes only recently after we found Vivox suggesting a developer drop Linux support. This makes me even more thankful that Valve are continuing to put resources into Linux, with things like Steam Play and funding developers across a multitude of other Linux-related projects and other open source software.

Hat tip to airspeedmph.