For Honor has been running for nearly a decade with regular updates, a loyal player base, and some of the most technically intricate melee combat in multiplayer gaming. On September 10, 2026, Ubisoft is dropping Linux and Steam Deck support entirely — and the timing is particularly frustrating because it’s happening on the exact same day the game is launching its most significant competitive update ever.
September 10 is the day Ranked Season 0 goes live, bringing Ranked Dominion out of beta alongside the existing Ranked Duel mode. Ranked Duel has technically been in beta for the game’s entire nine-year lifespan. Season 0 is meant to be a celebratory moment for the competitive community. For Linux and Steam Deck players, it’s the day they lose access entirely.
What Ubisoft Actually Said
The announcement came buried in a Ranked FAQ published on Ubisoft’s official site. The relevant section reads: “To reinforce a fair competitive environment, the team is introducing additional player safety measures. We are removing For Honor from the Linux platform to ensure a safer environment for our players as we cannot meaningfully deploy protection on this platform. This means that For Honor will no longer be playable on Steam Deck starting September 10th.”
The statement also includes a partial olive branch: “We will continue to investigate different ways to improve our anti-cheat with the possibility of reopening the platform in the future.” That leaves the door technically open for a return, but provides no timeline, no criteria, and no commitment.
The Anti-Cheat Reasoning — Is It Justified?
For Honor uses Easy Anti-Cheat, which currently has Linux support enabled for the game. Ubisoft’s position is that they “cannot meaningfully deploy protection” on Linux — meaning the specific anti-cheat measures they want to implement for the Ranked Season 0 launch don’t function adequately on Linux kernels.
This is a recurring pattern across competitive multiplayer games. Apex Legends removed Linux support in April 2023 for the same stated reason — and Respawn later reported that the restriction led to a measurable reduction in cheating. Whether that same logic applies to For Honor’s situation is harder to verify, because Ubisoft hasn’t specified what cheating activity on Linux prompted the decision or whether there’s documented evidence of a Linux-specific cheating problem in their player base. The community has been vocal about this gap — players on Linux forums point out that a dedicated Linux cheat marketplace for For Honor doesn’t appear to exist at meaningful scale, raising questions about whether the anti-cheat concern is the primary driver or whether it’s providing cover for a decision made on other grounds.
The counterargument Ubisoft and other publishers typically make is that kernel-level anti-cheat — which provides the strongest protection — doesn’t function reliably on Linux because Linux kernel architecture gives users more control over system processes than Windows, making it easier to circumvent protections that rely on kernel-level access. Whether this risk is proportionate to the size and behavior of For Honor’s Linux player base is a judgment call Ubisoft has made on behalf of its community without detailed transparency about the underlying data.
Who Gets Cut Off on September 10
The removal affects three categories of players:
- Linux desktop players — Anyone running For Honor on a standard Linux distribution through Steam’s Proton compatibility layer loses access completely
- Steam Deck players — Valve’s handheld runs SteamOS, which is Linux-based. For Honor currently carries a “Playable” rating on the Steam Deck compatibility checker, meaning it functions well on the hardware. That compatibility ends September 10
- Steam Machine players — Valve’s new Steam Machine mini PC also ships with SteamOS by default, so it’s caught in the same removal
SteamDB shows For Honor regularly peaking above 5,000 concurrent players in 2026 — genuinely healthy for a game approaching its tenth anniversary. Precise Linux/Steam Deck player counts aren’t publicly available, so the actual number of players losing access is unknown. Steam doesn’t break down platform splits within a game’s player count. What is clear is that whoever is playing For Honor on Linux in 2026 is doing so out of genuine dedication to the game — casual players don’t stick around for nine years on a platform that isn’t officially supported.
The Refund Situation
Players asking whether they can get refunds for a game they can no longer play are running into a legal grey area. For Honor was never officially Steam Deck Verified — it carries a “Playable” rating, not the full “Verified” certification, which means Valve’s standard compatibility guarantee doesn’t apply. Steam’s refund policy requires requests within two hours of playtime or two weeks of purchase for standard cases, making refunds difficult for a nine-year-old game even if you’ve barely touched it recently.
Some players have reported writing directly to Steam Support rather than using the automated system, citing the removal of platform functionality as grounds for an exception. Results have been inconsistent. Ubisoft has not announced any dedicated refund program for affected Linux players — which is notable given that the platform removal is unilateral and affects players who had no indication when they purchased the game that this could happen.
The Bigger Picture: Linux Gaming and Anti-Cheat
For Honor joining the list of competitive games dropping Linux support is part of a broader and frustrating pattern for the Linux gaming community. Steam Deck’s success has made Linux gaming more mainstream than at any point in history — the platform’s player base has grown substantially since the hardware launched — but competitive multiplayer titles keep pulling the rug out from under that audience.
The core tension is structural. Kernel-level anti-cheat, which publishers see as increasingly necessary for competitive integrity, works differently on Linux than on Windows. Valve has been working on solutions — specifically, Valve has been developing tools to allow kernel-level anti-cheat to run within Linux’s security architecture — but the timeline for that work catching up to publishers’ requirements is unclear. Until it does, competitive games that want to deploy stronger anti-cheat will keep making the same calculation Ubisoft just made: drop Linux rather than ship weaker protections.
The community argument against this is that publishers could maintain two branches — one with full anti-cheat for ranked competitive play, one without for casual modes — allowing Steam Deck and Linux players to keep playing in unranked contexts. That’s technically feasible but requires additional development resources and ongoing maintenance for two separate builds. Ubisoft has shown no interest in that approach for For Honor.
What’s Coming to For Honor on September 10 for Everyone Else
For the majority of players unaffected by the Linux removal, September 10 is actually a significant positive for the game. Ranked Season 0 brings:
- Ranked Dominion — 4v4, the game’s most popular mode, finally getting a proper ranked ladder after existing only in casual formats
- Full Ranked Season 0 — Ranked Duel exits its nine-year beta status and joins Ranked Dominion in a unified seasonal competitive structure
- 10 maps for Ranked Dominion competitive play
- Seven rank tiers — Bronze through Grandmaster
- Rank protection — Players cannot drop below their highest achieved tier, preventing demotion spirals
The irony of the situation is hard to miss. September 10 is genuinely one of the biggest days For Honor has had in years — the moment the game’s competitive structure finally grows up and stops carrying “beta” tags it’s had since 2017. For Linux and Steam Deck players who’ve been there through all nine years of that, being cut off on exactly that day rather than before or after it is a particularly bitter pill.
Summary
- Game: For Honor (Ubisoft)
- Original release: February 2017
- Change date: September 10, 2026
- Affected platforms: Linux (all distributions), Steam Deck (SteamOS), Steam Machine (SteamOS)
- Reason: Anti-cheat limitations — cannot deploy adequate protection on Linux kernel
- Future return: Possible — Ubisoft says they will investigate options
- Refunds: No dedicated program announced; Steam standard policy applies
- What else launches September 10: Ranked Season 0 — Ranked Dominion plus full Ranked Duel out of beta
- Current player health: 5,000+ concurrent peak on SteamDB
If you’re a For Honor player on Steam Deck or Linux, September 9 is your last day. If Ubisoft’s “we’ll investigate” language ever turns into concrete action, the community will be watching closely. In the meantime, if you’re looking to keep up with what else is happening in gaming this week, Pokemon Champions is getting its biggest update ever the next day on September 9 with Z Mega Evolutions landing in Regulation Set M-C, and The Witcher 3 Remastered launches September 29 with full save carry-over confirmed.
