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MANUALKILLER707's avatar
MANUALKILLER707
Rising Newcomer
19 hours ago

Apex in Windows VM on Arch Linux with KVM/VFIO — allowed?

I’m considering running Apex Legends in a genuine Windows 11 virtual machine hosted on Arch Linux.
The planned setup would be:

▪ Arch Linux as the bare-metal host OS
▪ QEMU/KVM as the hypervisor
▪ VFIO/IOMMU PCIe passthrough
▪ One GPU dedicated to the Linux host
▪ A second GPU passed directly through to the Windows guest
▪ A separate physical SSD assigned to the Windows VM
▪ Windows running the normal NVIDIA/AMD driver directly against the passed-through GPU
▪ Apex Legends and EA AntiCheat running entirely inside Windows
▪ No Wine/Proton used for Apex
▪ No modification, patching, hooking, spoofing or bypassing of EA AntiCheat
▪ No attempt to hide the fact that Windows is virtualized

My question is specifically about whether this configuration is permitted by EA/Apex anti-cheat policy.
Would simply running Apex inside a normally detectable Windows VM cause:

a. the game to be blocked from launching,
b. an unsupported-environment warning,
c. or any risk of account suspension/banning?

I understand native Linux/SteamOS support for Apex was removed. I’m not asking about running Apex through Proton or bypassing that restriction; the game itself would execute inside a full Windows installation.
If possible, I’d appreciate confirmation from an EA Community Manager, Respawn developer, or anti-cheat team member rather than speculation from other users

1 Reply

  • MANUALKILLER707 wrote:

    My question is specifically about whether this configuration is permitted by EA/Apex anti-cheat policy.

    MANUALKILLER707​ EA does not allow VMs in any compacity besides G-Force Now.

    MANUALKILLER707 wrote:

    a. the game to be blocked from launching,
    b. an unsupported-environment warning,
    c. or any risk of account suspension/banning?

    a. Most likely
    b. Most likely
    c. Yup, you'll risk a permanent ban

    MANUALKILLER707 wrote:

    I understand native Linux/SteamOS support for Apex was removed. I’m not asking about running Apex through Proton or bypassing that restriction; the game itself would execute inside a full Windows installation.

    This is bypassing the "native Linux/SteamOS support" block, as you are wanting to run Apex on a machine that is blocked from playing Apex.

    MANUALKILLER707 wrote:

    If possible, I’d appreciate confirmation from an EA Community Manager, Respawn developer, or anti-cheat team member rather than speculation from other users

    I do not work for EA or for Respawn, I am a volunteer, however here's a reply on another thread from EA Community Manager EA_Barry​:

    AFAIK, the only VM like environment that is currently supported is G-Force Now. 

    I have seen in the past that Shadow PC is blocked.

    I do not anticipate upcoming changes regarding VM environments.

    Thanks.

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