Battlefield 6 is following the footsteps of Battlefield 2042 and other EA titles, requiring Secure Boot support. Discovered by Battlefield Wire on X, Battlefield 6’s kernel-level Javelin anti-cheat system takes into account Secure Boot functionality and will prevent players from playing the game if the feature is turned off or not supported. At least the game will be easy to run on Windows PCs.
This requirement is not that serious for Windows users; however, it is very likely that Battlefield 6’s Secure Boot requirement, in addition to Javel’s kernel-level snooping, will prevent the game from working on Linux emulators such as Proton, killing Linux gaming support and Steam Deck support from the very start. Proton has no Secure Boot emulation as far as we are aware. (Even if it did, there’s still little chance Javelin would work in Linux.)
This is confirmed by EA’s Executive VP Vince Zampella, who told PCGamersN that Battlefield 6 does not work on the Steam Deck. Zampella failed to mention any possibility of the game working on the Steam Deck in the future, or any workarounds, all but confirming Javelin anti-cheat is causing the incompatibility.
Cheating and anti-cheats have long been problematic on Linux, which does not always support the same secure anti-cheat systems as Windows does. Easy Anti-Cheat, for instance, has Windows and Linux versions of its anti-cheat system, but its Linux variant is less secure than the Windows counterpart, lacking a kernel-level requirement altogether.
Javelin is EA’s latest iteration of its anti-cheat system, and allegedly its most successful anti-cheat system to date. Initially launched in 2022, Javelin takes advantage of a kernel-level anti-cheat system to scope for cheats in the Windows kernel itself. Javelin is also backed up by an army of security and software engineers, as well as a multi-faceted data team comprised of data analysts, data engineers, and data scientists.
Since its launch, EA has allegedly blocked over 33 million cheat attempts across 2.2 billion PCs with Javelin. When Javelin was first introduced into Battlefield 2042 last fall, EA allegedly saw match infection rates get cut in half; furthermore, Javelin allegedly has a 99% accurate rate when banning cheaters.
This issue will only become more problematic for Linux gamers moving forward. Valorant was one of the first games to incorporate a kernel-level anti-cheat system, which also enforced Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 requirements. But now, we’re seeing more publishers embrace these highly restrictive anti-cheat techniques to improve the gaming experience for their players.
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