Ubisoft will block Linux and Steam Deck players from For Honor on September 10

Ubisoft will lock Linux users out of For Honor on September 10, when it switches off Easy Anti-Cheat support for the platform. According to GamingOnLinux, which reported the publisher's announcement, the decision makes the online melee combat game unlaunchable on Linux desktops, the Steam Deck and Steam Machine hardware.

What Ubisoft said

In a notice on the game's official site, quoted by GamingOnLinux, Ubisoft framed the change as a matter of competitive fairness and player safety. The publisher said it cannot run its protection effectively on Linux and is therefore withdrawing the game from the platform entirely, with the cutoff taking effect on September 10. Ubisoft also stated that it will keep looking at ways to improve its anti-cheat setup and raised the possibility of reinstating Linux support at some point, though it offered no timeline for doing so.

A publisher-side switch, not a missing feature

For Honor relies on Easy Anti-Cheat, middleware that, as GamingOnLinux points out, is currently enabled for Linux in the game. The block therefore stems from Ubisoft choosing to disable that support rather than from the anti-cheat being unavailable on the platform. Once the setting is flipped, the game will refuse to run for anyone on a Linux-based system, including players who have been enjoying it without problems until now and who may already own it outright.

A familiar pattern for Linux gaming

GamingOnLinux, which tracks such cases on its anti-cheat page, notes that For Honor joins a lineup that includes the Battlefield series, Apex Legends and Grand Theft Auto V. The common thread is that raw compatibility is rarely the obstacle: Proton can often get these titles running, but a publisher's anti-cheat policy acts as the gatekeeper that decides whether the platform is allowed in. The story also gained traction on Hacker News, where it reached the front page.

Why it matters

The Steam Deck runs SteamOS, a Linux distribution, and Valve has spent years making the bulk of the Steam catalog playable on it through Proton. Anti-cheat remains the one boundary Valve cannot cross on its own: it can provide the technical plumbing for tools like Easy Anti-Cheat to function on Linux, but it cannot compel a publisher to keep that support switched on.

That means Linux players' access to individual games rests on a policy that can change at any time, and once it does there is very little affected players can do about it. Every high-profile removal weakens the case for Linux, and for SteamOS devices in particular, as a primary gaming platform, which is precisely the momentum Valve has been trying to build. GamingOnLinux argues that the calculus will only shift if the Linux player base grows large enough that blocking it becomes too costly to justify, or if Valve delivers an anti-cheat arrangement that publishers consider trustworthy. Until one of those things happens, For Honor is less an exception than a reminder of how conditional Linux gaming still is.