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DerpyTheEagle's avatar
7 years ago

Latest update breaks game through Wine Linux compatibility layer

So-- right off the bat, I'll say that I completely understand that playing Origin games through the Wine Linux compatibility layer is a completely unsupported platform. If something goes wrong or breaks, it's on the end user to fix it; that's how it is, I guess. Alright.

That said, prior to today, Apex Legends worked great under Linux from the moment it released, and I and a lot of Linux gamers have been having fun with the game.
Today, some sort of update occurred that has arbitrarily broken the game through Wine. The exact error in question is "EAC sandbox not active (dummy client)", which, from what I've been able to gather, doesn't mean a actual error has occurred in either the game or the anti-cheat software, but rather that EAC has simply been disabled for the Wine platform by the distributor.

That sucks, and it really seems like someone at EA just today decided to prevent Linux users from enjoying the game for no particular reason at all. Actively and arbitrarily disabling this game for Linux users especially looks bad for Origin, given Steam and Blizzard's recent actions to fix these kinds of issues and allow people to play on the platform of their choice. Blizzard doubly so because they took the time to actively resolve and make good on an issue affecting Linux compatibility despite the platform being unsupported by them.

Because of the Linux-friendly actions of other gaming platforms, and the many, many recent usability issues people have been having with Windows, Linux user share for desktop PCs has gone up considerably in the past few months, and changes like this really do seem actively malicious on EA's part when considering that growth.

Even if this issue isn't going to be fixed, is there anyone who can shed light on the specific reasoning behind this change, if not to actively prevent Linux users from playing the game?

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