Battlefield 6 has a cheating problem – and its anti-cheat system is stopping SteamOS compatibility too

• Users in EA forums have voiced frustrations regarding cheaters in Battlefield 6
• EA's Javelin anti-cheat is supposed to prevent cheating at the cost of Linux compatibility
• Kernel-level anti-cheat systems may be proving to be more negative than positive for gamers

EA's Battlefield 6 has maintained significantly high player numbers since its October 10 launch, and has continued to grow with the addition of its battle royale mode, Redsec. However, some players may have noticed concerning behaviours from other users while in-game.

According to users in EA forums, numerous Battlefield 6 players have gone undetected for cheating despite the EA Javelin anti-cheat system in place, made to prevent tools like aimbot or enhanced aim assists. While EA has permanently banned players spotted using Cronus Zen (one of the aim assist tools), it hasn't stopped users from finding ways to cheat.

I can vouch for the claims made in the EA Forums here and those found in another Steam community forum, as I've spotted cheaters in multiple Battlefield 6 lobbies using either soft aimbot or cheat trainers that grant benefits such as infinite grenades or no weapon recoil – and if that's not enough evidence, many users would brag about it in text chat.

Cheating attempts were prevalent in the beta, with EA claiming it successfully spotted and prevented 330,000 attempts to 'cheat or tamper with anti-cheat controls', but that didn't stop some from bypassing the system.

These attempts are still happening, and many are proving successful, raising the questions of whether the Javelin anti-cheat is more of a punishment on genuine players or a benefit to stop cheating.

One of the biggest problems is that EA's Javelin kernel-level anti-cheat requires Secure Boot to be enabled, which can cause complications with dual-boot desktop setups (which involves enrolling new Secure Boot keys). Since EA won't tailor its anti-cheat to work on Linux, SteamOS users are left unable to play Battlefield 6.

Since cheaters are still active, this kernel-level anti-cheat seems like an unnecessary and extreme measure to prevent cheating, and one that is holding back a potential increase in player count with Linux players in the queue. The anti-cheat itself is not exactly covering all its bases anyway.

It's worth mentioning that besides SteamOS compatibility, kernel-level anti-cheat introduces significant security risks; they require access to Ring 0, the central aspect of an operating system, and if bypassed may further lead to all sorts of nasty breaches and hacks nobody wants.

Similar criticisms from gamers apply to Activision's Ricochet anti-cheat system for Call of Duty, which is a franchise that arguably has it much worse than Battlefield in terms of cheaters (especially for more recent iterations).

Perhaps what publishers like EA and Activision must accept is that there is essentially no way to stop cheaters entirely in multiplayer gaming, so kernel-level anti-cheat probably isn't the way forward. There are alternative measures that involve account verifications via mobile phone numbers (which some may not like) or server-level anti-cheat systems that are far less problematic than what is active in Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty. Here's to hoping that said alternatives can be considered going forward.

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