Embark Studios has introduced a kernel-level anti-cheat system and will continue to support the Linux-based operating system.

Embark Studios announced on Steam a few days ago what players can expect from the The Finals 7.3 update, including a significant security change. “As mentioned in the 7.0 patch notes, many cheats nowadays use a kernel driver to read and write memory and gain an unfair advantage. This means they run in a privileged mode in the Windows operating system, making it unlikely—if not impossible—for the game client’s anti-cheat to detect them. The technical solution to this is kernel-driver anti-cheat. We believe that this will be a requirement for every competitive multiplayer game for the foreseeable future,” the studio wrote. Typically, kernel-level anti-cheat software spells doom for Linux-based players, including those on the Steam Deck, as this type of anti-cheat is rarely supported on Linux.

The developers later posted some good news on the game’s Discord server: “Hey guys! Despite not officially supporting the platform, there are no plans to drop support for SteamOS/Proton/Wine and/or Steam Deck. We will do our utmost best to maintain your ability to play! We’ve been working closely with CodeWeavers to QA every release since Season 5, and I don’t see a reason to stop. It’s not exactly a collaboration, but we catch issues with the Steam Deck early because, at the very least, they test the game before we release a patch. Do we miss some things once in a while? Absolutely. After all, it’s not our primary platform, but we understand there is a passionate and growing player base on Steam Deck. Please continue to report issues to us, to our support team, or directly to the Proton developers, and we will investigate ways to resolve them,” the studio added.

This is excellent news for anyone playing The Finals on a Steam Deck or Linux computer. With Windows 10 reaching the end of its life in October, more and more gamers are giving SteamOS a closer look. While SteamOS hasn’t yet received an official PC release, other gaming-focused Linux distributions (like Bazzite) are becoming increasingly popular alternatives to Windows 11.

This may explain why Embark Studios isn’t abandoning Linux players, which is a welcome change. Of course, nothing is set in stone. Other games have supported Linux in the past only to drop it later (Apex Legends). Hopefully, that won’t be the case here.

Source: PCGamer, Steam