GTA Online Gets The Anti-Cheat Support It's Been Sorely Needed On PC For 9 Years, But Steam Deck Players Are Paying The Price

Nine years after its initial release, Rockstar has added third-party anti-cheat software BattlEye to the PC version of GTA V, and it’s been a long time coming. The addition of a PC anti-cheat was added as part of a larger title update to celebrate the game’s eleventh anniversary and remind us that the passage of time is inevitable.

BattlEye is a fairly common anti-cheat software that can be found in other multiplayer games like Destiny 2 and Fortnite. The software can hardware ban users if they are caught using mods or cheats extensively, meaning that if you get caught cheating in GTA Online, your computer will no longer be able to play the game.

If you don’t play GTA Online, Rockstar has added the option to disable BattlEye for Story Mode, making it a little easier for users to ignore having to deal with a new program running on their computer.

However, players are reporting a new issue: GTA Online is no longer working on their Steam Deck. While many games with BattlEye anti-cheat are playable on Steam Deck thanks to the Proton compatibility tool, the latest GTA Online update doesn’t allow it. So Steam Deck players are out of luck unless Rockstar releases a patch to enable it.

PC players must now install BattlEye Anticheat to play online. Steam Deck and Linux users are banned from r/gtaonline

GTA Online has been plagued by cheaters since the game’s early years, creating new and inventive ways to make everyone miserable. In 2022, cheaters used an exploit to spam random player invites, slowing down their games and blocking the Sparrow helicopter’s ability to spawn. While another exploit forced players to observe other people in their session, taking control away from them.

We hope this mitigates the majority of exploits that have plagued GTA Online’s public lobbies for years, but we’ll keep an eye on how this all plays out.

If you are looking for even more, check out our GTA V Complete Guide