[STEAM] Marvel Rivals lifts 100-year “cheating” bans on Mac and Steam Deck players

[Steam 0]

With Valve's

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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.

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, 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,

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, 

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, Destiny 2,

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, 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.

Is there harm in trying? For a while, there was 100 years' worth. As

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and

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, many players who successfully got Marvel Rivals working would receive a "Penalty Issued" notice, with a violation "detected" and bans

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. 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.

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