Arc Raiders Dev Tests New Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat Solution, Raising Questions About Linux Support

Arc Raiders is one of only a handful of semi-competitive, shooters with a large player base that has a Platinum rating on ProtonDB, thanks to its Linux-friendly Easy Anti-Cheat implementation. In a recent blog post addressing the studio’s plans to “ensure fair play,” Arc Raiders developer, Embark Studios, confirmed that it is testing a new kernel-level anti-cheat solution that the studio expects “will sharpen both detection and precision throughout Speranza and the Rust Belt.” The studio confirms that, in addition to the pre-existing kernel-level anti-cheat implementation, it relies heavily on machine learning tools and input telemetry data in order to catch cheaters. In spite of these existing efforts, Steam user reviews still complain bitterly about the presence of cheaters in Arc Raiders.

It should be noted that Embark has clearly considered Linux playability via Proton and similar tools, as well as its Steam Deck Verified status, until now. There’s a fair bit of the anti-cheat blog post dedicated to accessibility and players on uncommon hardware and input devices, with the developer promising to continue letting players with unorthodox accessibility tools play the game. Additionally, when Embark first implemented kernel-level anti-cheat in The Finals, it promised to maintain support for Linux and the Steam Deck, so there’s a fairly decent chance that Arc Raiders may remain playable on Linux devices. That said, in cases like that of Apex Legends, Respawn and EA have claimed that dropping Linux support resulted in a 33% decline in cheaters, giving rise to a notion in certain circles that Linux is a cheater’s operating system.