Players using Proton, CrossOver, or other tools earned “Penalty Issued” screens.
Officially, only Windows and console players should have access to this much IP in one battleground. But that doesn’t mean everybody else is a cheater. Credit: NetEase
With Valve’s impressive work on the Proton tool for Linux and the Mac’s Game Porting Toolkit and CrossOver options, few games are truly “Windows only” these days. The exceptions are those with aggressive, Windows-based anti-cheating tools baked in, something that hit back hard against players eager to dive into a new superhero shooter.
Marvel Rivals, an Overwatch-ish free-to-play hero shooter released in early December 2024, has all the typical big online game elements: an in-game shop with skins and customizations, battle passes, and anti-cheating tech. While Proton, which powers the Linux-based Steam Deck’s ability to play just about any Windows game, has come very far in a few years’ time, its biggest blind spots are these kinds of online-only games, like Grand Theft Auto Online, Fortnite, Destiny 2, Apex Legends, and the like. The same goes for Mac players, who, if they can work past DirectX 12, can often get a Windows game working in CrossOver or Parallels, minus any anti-cheat tools.
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Is there harm in trying? For a while, there was 100 years’ worth. As detailed in the r/macgaming subreddit and at r/SteamDeck, many players who successfully got Marvel Rivals working would receive a “Penalty Issued” notice, with a violation “detected” and bans issued until 2124. Should such a ban stand, players risked entirely missing the much-prophesied Year of the Linux Desktop or Mainstream Mac Gaming, almost certain to happen at some point in that span.
While Rivals was quick to ban, it was also quick to fix this issue. After players contacted Rivals leadership, along with direct intervention by the CEO of CodeWeavers, CrossOver’s maker, the bans have been reversed, according to company statements and Reddit posts. Developer NetEase posted on its Discord, per IGN, that it “will not ban players who are playing fairly and without cheating” and work to improve its anti-cheat detection accuracy. The company did not issue any broader statement about allowances for compatibility tools.
Maintaining a cheat-free online game, while also allowing for all the quirks of various compatibility layers, seems like a tricky challenge for a developer. With more Steam-OS-based devices seemingly on the way, game developers will seemingly have to decide just how much compatibility they want to fit inside their communities.
