Valve’s New Steam Machine Punches at Anti-Cheat Problem, But Battlefield 6 Still Faces Roadblocks

Valve’s new Steam Machine is launching with a clear goal: bring more AAA multiplayer games to its platform, but there’s a major hurdle it can’t leap alone. Games like Battlefield 6 and Valorant, dependent on kernel-level anti-cheat, still won’t run on the Linux-based SteamOS powering the new device. Valve is hoping its hardware can change that eventually.

The Steam Machine, a plug-and-play gaming PC that runs on SteamOS, marks Valve’s latest push into the hardware market. It’s straightforward: plug it in, launch Steam, and you’re gaming. But if your favorites rely on kernel-level anti-cheat, you’ll hit a wall the moment you try to launch them.

Why Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat Is a Linux Nightmare

Valve was clear when Eurogamer pressed them on the issue during the Steam Machine’s preview. The problem isn’t new. Kernel-level anti-cheats are deeply embedded in your operating system, giving them system-wide oversight. Their job? Catch cheaters where normal anti-cheat can’t. The flipside: they’re notoriously difficult, some say impossible, to bridge onto Linux, the backbone of SteamOS.

Multiplayer heavyweights like EA’s Battlefield 6 and Riot’s Valorant lock themselves behind these anti-cheat barricades. Emulation tricks have fallen short, so on Linux systems, including the Steam Machine, these games refuse to start.

When asked if Valve was making any progress cracking the code, a company rep didn’t sugarcoat things: “While [the] Steam Machine also requires Dev participation to enable anti-cheat, we think the incentives for enabling Anti-cheat on Machine to be higher than on Deck as we expect more people to play multiplayer games on it. So ultimately we hope that the launch of Machine will change the equation around anti-cheat support and increase its support.”

The message is clear: Valve is inviting developers to the table, but can’t force their hand.

Will Steam Machine’s Hardware Give Linux Gamers a Fairer Shot?

Valve has seen the ugly side of online multiplayer firsthand. As creators of Counter Strike 2, they’re at war with cheaters every day. Their own system, VAC Live, keeps the fight up, but doesn’t dig as deep as kernel-level tools. That’s left the door open for more aggressive solutions from the likes of EA and Activision Blizzard—tools that often draw criticism for how much access they demand from your system.

The real hope here? Steam Machine is a dedicated gaming device, more console-like than any PC Valve has built before. Valve believes this might finally give developers enough reason to build proper anti-cheat support for Linux, since multiplayer gaming could become a much bigger draw on dedicated hardware. If they’re right, it could break the cycle that’s left Linux players lagging behind their Windows counterparts.

Steam’s own Hardware Survey paints the picture: Linux now captures three percent of Steam users (up from two percent for MacOS, and dwarfed by Windows’ 95 percent). It’s crawling upward, but incompatibility with major online games is a major anchor.

Valve knows the only way to close that gap is to make the platform fully competitive; starting with anti-cheat support on hardware like the Steam Machine.

If you want the full breakdown on Valve’s hardware rollout, check out Eurogamer’s other reports on hardware distribution improvements, design motivations, and in-depth hands-on previews with the Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Frame. For now, though, the fate of games like Battlefield 6 is up to both Valve and the developers, no instant fix in sight.