Lots of games that ship with kernel level anticheat have an android port that doesn't have that feature because android (also linux) similarly doesn't hand out root access, let alone kernel access to anything in userland.

Huge example being Fortnite.

Already ignoring the fact that kernel level anticheats have well known bypasses, cheaters can also just use the Android version to make cheating easier if that was really an obstacle.

Anyone peddling kernel anticheat as a requirement is just using it to cut costs in running moderation staff. Epic Games specifically is just being a dick to linux because they know they have zero leverage in that market, and don't want to give Steam more traffic.

All Valve really has to do is sell enough units to tip the percent of linux users that these publishers would not want to miss out on. That's how so many updated and expanded with the steam deck. Currently the estimate is about 4 million monthly active users on a linux platform. I think if they can reach 10 million (I think 6-7%), it would be enough to incentivize the change.

I never would have thought Microsoft would allow Halo Infinite or MCC on linux 5 years ago, but they actually changed their minds because they knew people wanted to play on the steam deck. I would even take a guess that the new CoD stuff will shortly follow since MSFT is taking a more open platform approach anyway.

EDIT:

Oh this might be what pushes larger companies to drop kernel level anticheat! That would remove the main reason that keeps my gaming on Windows.

The fix is to not use local anti cheat at all which is proven time and time again to be the wrong strategy. It's stupid and anyone who makes local anti cheat is either stupid or cheap or both.

It affects only the most cancerous type of anticheat that's been bypassed for a decade and introduces huge risks to your PC - Kernel level anticheat. People should stop playing any game that has such anticheat.

Irrelevant to me personally but I’d like to see it cause more windows users to jump ship

It kind of bothers me that people are putting the responsibility on valve for this, when the companies themselves have purposefully not enabled compatibility in most cases.

This is a huge deal for Linux gaming.

There is nothing worse than playing multiplayer and having somebody who is cheating. Viable and promising games have been ruined by people cheating.

But I don't see an easy way around the issue but these are the usual solutions:

1. Reporting mechanism and admins able to observe cheaters and impose heavy penalties / permabans
2. Add anticheat on server side that detect for cheating (e.g. measuring % hit rates / headshots)
3. Anti cheat software on client that looks for common cheat hacks
4. Stream everything. It's all hosted on the server, nobody installs anything, limiting ways to cheat.
5. Disincentivize cheating by not acknowledging people doing it in any way - no rare loot, no leaderboards, no material gain
6. Make it a 3rd party problem - release the server or sell hosting and make it somebody else's problem to police the servers (e.g. Rust / Minecraft servers)

Personally I'd prefer that multiplayer games obtain consent to install anti cheat and should certify through auditing that the anticheat software is inactive and nonintrusive when the game is not running. Perhaps operating systems could even provide hooks and hard guarantees that this is the case.

Please make this optional. I'd rather not have any third party kernel modules mucking around in my OS. I don't use anything the requires this.

I will buy one of these if valve fixes gaming on Linux. I don't even want one

This could be huge. I hope they find a decent middle ground.

Are they working on giving the worst and most useless companies kernel level access to my pc?

On the one hand, I don't give a fuck about anti-cheat, because games using the kernel-level version tend to be giant multiplayer cesspools of little value.

On the other hand, I want Windows to lose the war.

I hope Valve can find the balance between these two extremes.

I have this feeling that even if valve makes it work, rootkit anticheat devs will push updates that intentionally make it not work again. Probably with more claims like the majority of cheaters being linux users