The Steam Machine's anti-cheat problem: why your games may not run

The Steam Machine's biggest obstacle isn't performance — it's anti-cheat. SteamOS runs Windows games through Proton, but the strictest kernel-level anti-cheats remain Windows-only, which means a large share of competitive multiplayer titles simply won't launch. If you're eyeing a Steam Machine as your main rig, this is the limitation to understand before you buy.

The reason is rooted in hardware trust. Kernel anti-cheats want to verify the platform they run on, and on Linux that verification is much weaker. This guide explains why, which systems work and which don't, and how it connects to the hardware-attestation trend reshaping PC gaming.

Quick reference: anti-cheat on SteamOS

Why the strictest anti-cheats stay Windows-only

EAC and BattlEye have done the technical work to run under Proton, but enabling them is opt-in: a developer must turn on Linux support in the anti-cheat dashboard, ship the Linux library in the game build, and validate it. Many studios decline for policy, QA, or business reasons, so the game stays blocked even when the path exists.

The harder wall is the kernel-and-attestation class. As one engineer put it, on Linux "you can freely manipulate the kernel, and there's no user-mode call to attest that it's even genuine — you could build a distro purpose-made for cheating." Vanguard, Ricochet, and Javelin all lean on a verified Windows boot chain and platform attestation, the same foundation behind the TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot requirements those games impose. Without an equivalent on Linux, they don't run at all. Our Javelin breakdown shows how deep that Windows dependency goes.

The scale of the problem

This isn't a handful of edge cases. According to Are We Anti-Cheat Yet, a crowd-sourced compatibility database, 682 of the 1,136 games that require anti-cheat don't work on Linux for one reason or another — more than half. The Steam Deck already lives with this, and the Steam Machine inherits the exact same constraint, as we noted in our Steam Deck anti-cheat overview.

How this ties back to hardware identity

Attestation is fundamentally about proving hardware identity — that this machine is a genuine, unmodified platform. That's the same principle that makes a hardware fingerprint trustworthy enough to anchor a HWID ban. On Windows, TPM and verified boot give anti-cheats a hardware root of trust; on Linux, the open kernel breaks that chain. The lesson cuts both ways: the features that lock these games to Windows are the same ones that make hardware-level enforcement reliable. For background on changing identifiers across platforms, see HWID on Linux.

FAQ

Can I play Valorant or Call of Duty on a Steam Machine?

Not currently. Vanguard and Ricochet are Windows-only because they rely on a verified Windows boot chain and attestation that SteamOS can't provide.

Do any anti-cheat games work on SteamOS?

Yes. Titles using Easy Anti-Cheat or BattlEye can work when the developer enables Linux support. Whether a specific game runs depends on that opt-in.

Will this ever change?

Possibly for EAC/BattlEye titles as more studios opt in, but kernel-and-attestation systems would need a Linux trust model they currently consider too weak.

Is dual-booting Windows a workaround?

It is, but you'd be playing those games in Windows, not SteamOS — which defeats much of the point of a Linux-first machine.

The takeaway

The Steam Machine is capable hardware held back by a trust problem, not a power problem. EAC and BattlEye games can work where developers opt in, but the kernel-and-attestation anti-cheats that dominate competitive shooters stay Windows-only by design. The deeper takeaway is that hardware attestation — the thing keeping those games off Linux — is the same foundation that makes HWID bans stick. Until Linux offers a trust model these vendors accept, checking the anti-cheat compatibility of your library before buying is the practical move.