Epic Games Acquired Kamu, the makers of Easy Anti-Cheat, back in October of 2018, as noted in a blog post on the Unreal Engine website. The software is an anti-cheat tool used to prevent cheaters from flooding games. It offered support for both Windows and Linux systems. Well, apparently Epic Games has “Paused” support for Kamu on Linux, and games that used to be protected against cheaters are no longer protected against cheaters.
It started with an article from Gaming On Linux on May 5th, 2019, where they noted that the news actually originated from a comment on a Reddit thread to one of their articles from Garry Newman from Facepunch Studios. Newman was responding to one of Gaming On Linux’s articles and let it slip that one of the issues facing the development team now is dealing with anti-cheat support after Epic Games “paused” Kamu support for Linux. With Easy Anti-Cheat no longer supported on the platform it makes development difficult for games like Rust when it comes to dealing with cheaters.
Newman’s comment from the Linux Gaming thread on Reddit states…
“[There] are Unity issues, sure, Linux guys are usually understanding about those and find a way around. They’re a pain in the ass but it’s business as usual for Linux/Unity development.
“The biggest issue as far as I can see is that EAC are pausing their Linux support, which is resulting in an increase in cheaters using the Linux version. This is a huge problem because it affects every other platform.”
While this revelation might seem like a problem simply for Linux gamers, apparently it extends beyond that.
As reported by YouTuber Bellular News, Valve had been working with Kamu to integrate the Easy Anti-Cheat API into Steamplay for both Windows and Linux users. The YouTuber notes that so far it appears the project may be dead in the water.
Bellular speculates that it looks like Epic Games is using it to halt Valve’s Proton project, which relied on Kamu’s Easy Anti-Cheat software to get non-native games to work through Linux without requiring additional support from developers. But if the Easy Anti-Cheat software no longer supports Linux, then it means that the Proton project is no longer as effective since it offers no anti-cheat protection for the Linux version of the games.
As noted by Gaming On Linux and Bellular News, Epic has yet to issue a statement about the Kamu support being dropped for Linux. Gamers meanwhile have been moderately distraught over the issue given that it could spell bad news for certain games gaining Linux support in the future if there’s no convenient way to stop cheaters and hackers from disrupting games. As Twitter user Chandler Bronso pointed out, it’s just an added reason to a bevy of other reasons as to why gamers don’t like the Epic Games Store.
To a degree consumers are being cheated. The revenue split for devs is better on epic store but the picture I linked from #pcgamer shows that there are alot of features missing as of right now, and recently linux support for anticheat has been put on hold since epic got kamu. pic.twitter.com/JruIKUoPmL
— ChandlerB.Robinson (@ChandlerBronso3) May 6, 2019
I imagine Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney might be forced to make a statement about the Easy Anti-Cheat support being paused/dropped once the news begins to spread to more outlets and more YouTubers and gamers raise a stink about the matter. But for now, they’re keeping their lips sealed.
(Thanks for the news tip MaverickHL and Ebicentre)
