Steam now requires developers to tell people when their games have kernel mode anticheat

Kernel mode anticheat software is something of a divisive topic. Many players believe it negatively impacts their games' performance and could potentially compromise their system's security; but many players also want something done about all the unscrupulous players, and broadly speaking, kernel-level anticheat is the most effective way to keep things clean. It is, as they say, a conundrum.

A new addition to Steam won't change any of the above, but it will at least make it easier for people to know what's going on and react accordingly: A field on Steam store pages will now enable developers to clearly indicate what sort of anticheat software their games are using, and in the case of kernel mode anticheat, will require that disclosure.

"We've heard from more and more developers recently that they're looking for the right way to share anti-cheat information about their game with players," Valve wrote. "At the same time, players have been requesting more transparency around the anti-cheat services used in games, as well as the existence of any additional software that will be installed within the game."

Any new games being added to Steam that install a client-side kernel mode anticheat will be required to fill out the new field, and Valve said it will be going through its old games and contacting developers and publishers whose games fall into that category to ensure they update their store pages accordingly.

Games with client or server-based anticheat that is not kernel based will not be required to fill out the field, "but we generally think that any game that makes use of anti-cheat technology would benefit from letting players know," Valve said.

You can see the change on the Counter-Strike 2 Steam page, which now has a field indicating the presence of Valve Anti-Cheat software:

The early response to the change is quite positive (although a few comments seem more focused on calling out the inherent evils of kernel mode software than on the new notification system itself), which is not entirely surprising. People have been unhappy about kernel mode anticheat for years. Riot's Vanguard software caused controversy when it went live in 2020, as did Doom Eternal around the same time. Activision tried to dodge the bullet when it announced the Ricochet kernel mode anticheat for Call of Duty games in 2021, promising it will only operate when Warzone is running, a maneuver that met with limited success; EA jumped into the fray with the same promise in 2023. As we noted earlier this year, kernel mode anticheat isn't going anywhere, but at least now you'll know when it's around.