Marvel Rivals unbans Steam Deck and Mac players wrongly caught up in cheater purge

rockpapershotgun.com:

Steam Deck, Mac, and other Linux-based enjoyers of superhero shooter hit Marvel Rivals can once again play without fear of being pulped under an unlawfully swung banhammer. Developers NetEase had recently doled out bans of up to 100 years to players they suspected of cheating, but in their eagerness, failed to distinguish between legitimate compatibility layers – the software that non-Windows operating systems, like the Steam Deck’s SteamOS, use to run native Windows games – and actual hacks. Per IGN, NetEase have now apologised to the affected players, and lifted the bans.

"We sincerely apologize for this situation and want to assure you that we do not and will not ban players who are playing fairly and without cheating," NetEase’s Discord statement reads, perhaps not with the kind of wording I’d use if I’d just banned players who are playing fairly and without cheating. It continues: "We have identified the specific reasons behind these false bans and have compiled a list of affected players. We have lifted these bans and want to express our heartfelt apologies for the inconvenience this has caused."

Proof, there, that justice can be served by apologetic executives just as effectively as vigilante supersoldiers and/or sentient trees. I haven’t played Marvel Rivals – Ed’s review would have put me off even I hadn’t already had my fill of hero shooters – but I do note that Valve have rated it Playable for the Steam Deck, so the number of falsely condemned SteamOS players could have been substantial from that alone.

Proton, the specific compatibility layer that SteamOS integrates, does have some past form for triggering certain anti-cheat systems, though in the Deck’s early days this was more down to a simple lack of software compatibility rather than genuine concerns over Proton’s potential dodginess. Still, the prospect of exposing games to the untameable, open-source Linux still spooks some developers. Fortnite has never worked on SteamOS, for one, and Apex Legends