Rockstar Adds Anti-Cheat to GTA V, Breaks Linux Compatibility and It’s Already Been Bypassed

Nine years after its PC debut, Rockstar’s crime simulator, Grand Theft Auto Online, has finally integrated a third-party anti-cheat system, BattlEye. However, this move has broken compatibility for players on Linux and Valve’s Steam Deck.

Cheating has plagued GTA Online for years, with mod menus available since its PC launch. Players have exploited these tools to disrupt the game, giving others massive amounts of in-game money.

Allowing them to bypass hours of grinding, and creating chaos with invincibility, object spawning, and player griefing, often in extreme ways like forcing inappropriate interactions between characters such as by raping them.

It’s an issue that seemed unsolvable, especially since Rockstar Games never made a serious effort to implement a legitimate anti-cheat system in GTA Online, a multiplayer grindfest with continual expansions featuring overpriced cars, mansions, and more, pushing players toward buying Shark Cards to afford it all.

After nearly a decade of rampant cheating and chaos, it appears Rockstar has finally reached their breaking point or are simply treading the waters in the wake of GTA 6.

The latest GTA V update, which has already raised concerns about mod compatibility, coincides with the 11th anniversary of GTA Online and follows years after the game was released on last-gen consoles and PC.

Why Rockstar has only now decided to deploy an anti-cheat system remains unclear. There are rumors of a “next-gen” PC update ahead of GTA 6, but the timing and reasoning are anyone’s guess.

BattlEye is a widely used anti-cheat software, found in multiplayer games like Escape from Tarkov, Destiny 2, and Fortnite. It can impose hardware-level bans on users caught extensively using mods or cheats, meaning if you’re caught cheating in GTA Online, you may be permanently barred from playing, even with an alternative account.

This is due to BattlEye’s kernel-level operation, which is notorious for impacting game performance and stability.

The ongoing battle between online games and cheaters is a constant arms race that often favors the cheaters. However, BattlEye has known compatibility issues with the Linux operating system, which powers Valve’s popular Steam Deck.

Grand Theft Auto V was previously listed as fully compatible with the Steam Deck, but its Steam page now marks the game as “Unsupported” for Steam Deck users due to the fact that “the game’s anti-cheat is not configured to support Steam Deck.” In late 2021, just before the Steam Deck’s launch, Valve announced that “BattlEye on Proton [and thus Steam Deck] integration has reached a point where all a developer needs to do is reach out to BattlEye to enable it for their title. No additional work is required from the developer besides that communication.”

Following this announcement, popular titles like ARK: Survival Evolved, DayZ, and Arma 3 quickly enabled both BattlEye anti-cheat and Steam Deck compatibility. However, many other BattlEye-protected games on Steam including Destiny 2, The Crew 2, The Day Before, and Riders Republic have seemingly not taken the steps necessary to enable Steam Deck support.

What sets GTA V apart from other BattlEye-incompatible games is that it has been one of the most popular titles on the Steam Deck, offering a fully functional online mode for years.

Without a solution, Rockstar’s decision will render a previously playable online experience inaccessible for many Steam Deck users, some of whom may have no other way to play the game simply due to convenience or preference.

Many big-name game developers fail to treat Linux as an equal platform to Windows, despite evidence showing that gaming on a Linux-based kernel can outperform Windows on certain titles.

This is likely due to the fact that Windows 10 and newer versions are bloated, riddled with background applications, and suffer from scheduling issues on modern hybrid and chiplet-based CPUs.

These problems often result in latency-sensitive applications, such as games, being assigned to Intel’s lower-performance E-cores instead of the high-performance cores, alongside AMD Ryzen processors oscillating tasks between CCDs.

Linux has become a viable alternative to Windows, and in many cases, it’s outright superior. With Valve adopting Proton for compatibility, tools like DXVK, a DirectX-to-Vulkan API translation layer not only make older titles playable on Linux but also help resolve performance issues and boost performance in certain games, such as GTA IV.

This growing compatibility and performance enhancement further solidify Linux as a strong contender in gaming.

While many games with BattlEye anti-cheat are playable on Steam Deck via the Proton compatibility tool, GTA Online’s latest update breaks that functionality, leaving Steam Deck players out of luck unless Rockstar releases a patch to enable it.

This has led to a significant drop in the game’s concurrent player numbers. Following the release of the 1.69 update on September 17th, GTA V‘s peak player count dropped by nearly 20,000, down from a previous highs of around 159,000 players due to the game no longer being compatible for the time being.

To make matters worse, the implementation of BattlEye has done little to address the core issue: modders continue to plague public lobbies by trolling and disrupting gameplay.

Many popular mod menus, like Yim Menu, have already been updated to bypass BattlEye’s anti-cheat measures. As a result, Steam Deck and Linux players have essentially been sidelined, while the problem remains unresolved for everyone else.

As is often the case with developers implementing invasive software, whether it’s kernel-level anti-cheat solutions or anti-piracy DRM like DENUVO, the only ones truly punished are the legitimate, paying players.

They now must endure reduced system performance, false positives from anti-virus programs, and have to accept that their favorite game now has kernel-level access to their system, all while cheaters continue to slip through the cracks.

On the bright side, it’s almost certain Rockstar will release an update soon to restore compatibility with Linux and the Steam Deck, so legitimate players can return to being exploited by cheaters in public lobbies.