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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?

117 Replies

  • RanceJustice's avatar
    RanceJustice
    6 years ago

    Just writing to share my support for Linux!  From all reports,  EAC is  the major blocker at current, making the game nigh unplayable.     Given that Apex Legends is one of the higher profile titles that uses Easy AntiCheat, it would be nice if Respawn could work with or request the EAC developers to properly support Linux, including play via Wine and Proton.


    While I'd love to see Apex natively ported to Linux, I don't hold my breath given EA's unfortunate lack of interest.  However, if the games can at least be tested with Wine and Proton  that would make it the most Linux-friendly and least objectionable of the major Battle Royale type titles around,  attracting many players.    Reports from users  of WINE / Proton show that the game itself renders well and has good performance under Wine (+ Winetricks, DXVK etc, or Proton,  making it very playable save for the EAC issue.  Dedicating some resources to investigating  the problems and finding solutions would be much appreciated. 


    Thank you.

  • It's not that hard for you guys, please add support of EAC for Wine, Linux community is growing fast this days.

  • Please stop ruining games like this for linux EA, find a way to implement your anti-cheat software so that the game can still be run through wine for those of us who are sick and tired of Microsoft's BS OS, it's not like you don't have the resources or the ability to do it, so do it.

  • gardotd426's avatar
    gardotd426
    6 years ago

    Please fix this. Every single one of your games work GREAT on Linux, except for when EAC is used. I play Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 and V multiplayer every single day, and have an Origin Access Premier subscription, and I only play on Linux. I would give a ton of money on cosmetics (which I usually never buy) if we could get the EAC problem on FIFA and Apex fixed.

  • with the last expansion, I was hoping that they would have fixed the problem but it seems not to be the case ☹️

    I played the game on the ps4 of a friend and after a lot of work to install it on my PC there appears the anti-cheat failure identification after a 1/2 minutes in practice mode. 

    Please EA do something, I am not going to make a partition on my PC only to play a game 

  • Now it's released on Steam and doesn't work through SteamPlay because of this Easy Anti-Cheat. The game itself runs fine on Linux until the anticheat logs you off after a couple of minutes.

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