Could I remote play Apex Legends via SteamLink on a SteamDeck?

[MrSheoko]

Hi guys,

I'm planning to buy a SD OLED, but with the restrictions recently applied on games using EAC such as Apex, which I'm playing quite a lot, I had a few doubts in my mind.

Everything I read online mentioned that installing Windows 11 on SD would be the only way to olay Apex now, but as I would mainly be a home-player with a good PC running on W11 and great internet connection, I wondered if I still could run Apex on my SD via SteamLink, through remote play with my PC.

Unfortunately, I can't quite use my Gaming set lately as a new father, and playing on the couch or in my bed is the main reason why I want to buy a SD.

Thanks in advance guys, and sorry for the inconvenience if that question was too dumb!

[Mahjik]

Why not just buy a Windows based handheld?

[MrSheoko]

Thanks for your feedback! Btw, why would you say you wouldn't try then? Because of the probable input lag?

Windows handhelds are currently above my budget and I really want a secondary handheld console/PC for my Steam games, as I don't have much time as a new father for things such as optimizing my handheld system, updating drivers, solving Windows problems etc.

[PopinFRESH]

Congrats on the fatherhood and yes if you have a Windows gaming PC that you are able to play games such as Apex then you can play those on the Steam Deck via In-home streaming / Remote Play / Remote Play Together (a la Steam Link).

It would work fine for your use case in using Remote Play for the games that you can't natively run on-Deck via proton due to Anti-cheat or otherwise. How well those experiences work in the hand-held form factor on a smaller screen and with the small amount of additional latency (it really isn't very much depending on your in-home network) is another question. For example I find it nearly impossible to enjoy playing Rocket League on my Steam Deck because of the FOV and viewing distance making it much more difficult to judge depth and read the game compared to playing on my desktop.

Regardless, even if you find it not quite suitable for things like Apex there are still a plethora of really great experiences available on it.

[ReBoot]

Works fine. I've played Gothic 2 and Jedi Survivor today via streaming from my gaming battlestation PC.

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by Sheoko:

Thanks for your feedback! Btw, why would you say you wouldn't try then? Because of the probable input lag?

Windows handhelds are currently above my budget and I really want a secondary handheld console/PC for my Steam games, as I don't have much time as a new father for things such as optimizing my handheld system, updating drivers, solving Windows problems etc.

If your primary games that you play are things like Apex Legends, then in the end, you'll be happier with a Windows-based handheld.

Can you stream it from your PC? Yes. Every hour I've played of Madden '24 & '25 has been streaming to my Deck. However, I never play online or competitively. There is "some" input lag doing this through Remote Play.

I've heard Moonlight has less latency but it doesn't work with my setup. It feels like you are trying to stick a square through a circle.

[MrSheoko]

Originally posted by Mahjik:

Originally posted by Sheoko:

Thanks for your feedback! Btw, why would you say you wouldn't try then? Because of the probable input lag?

Windows handhelds are currently above my budget and I really want a secondary handheld console/PC for my Steam games, as I don't have much time as a new father for things such as optimizing my handheld system, updating drivers, solving Windows problems etc.

If your primary games that you play are things like Apex Legends, then in the end, you'll be happier with a Windows-based handheld.

Can you stream it from your PC? Yes. Every hour I've played of Madden '24 & '25 has been streaming to my Deck. However, I never play online or competitively. There is "some" input lag doing this through Remote Play.

I've heard Moonlight has less latency but it doesn't work with my setup. It feels like you are trying to stick a square through a circle.

Actually, my primary games are EuroTruck Simulator 2, NBA2K, Crusader Kings, Hitman... but I do play Apex here and then, that's the only MP shooter I play and I like to come back to it on a weekly basis (that's maybe not "a lot" as I was saying in my initial post, but I still would have loved to play it on the Deck).

Talking about streaming, I really thought about it honestly, since I got a pretty good internet connection at home and aiming at playing only at home.

I saw reports and guys on Reddit saying that I should pay attention to the games I would like to stream/remote play through SteamLink/Moonlight, such as Apex, BO6, FC25...

According to them, since these games are not supporting Linux anymore due to their Easy Anti-cheat system, I could get my account banned if I even tried to stream it.

Would you confirm this? i would admit i'm baffled if that's the case... I mean, it's literally just remote playing from my PC...

Thks!

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Sheoko:

Originally posted by Mahjik:

If your primary games that you play are things like Apex Legends, then in the end, you'll be happier with a Windows-based handheld.

Can you stream it from your PC? Yes. Every hour I've played of Madden '24 & '25 has been streaming to my Deck. However, I never play online or competitively. There is "some" input lag doing this through Remote Play.

I've heard Moonlight has less latency but it doesn't work with my setup. It feels like you are trying to stick a square through a circle.

Actually, my primary games are EuroTruck Simulator 2, NBA2K, Crusader Kings, Hitman... but I do play Apex here and then, that's the only MP shooter I play and I like to come back to it on a weekly basis (that's maybe not "a lot" as I was saying in my initial post, but I still would have loved to play it on the Deck).

Talking about streaming, I really thought about it honestly, since I got a pretty good internet connection at home and aiming at playing only at home.

I saw reports and guys on Reddit saying that I should pay attention to the games I would like to stream/remote play through SteamLink/Moonlight, such as Apex, BO6, FC25...

According to them, since these games are not supporting Linux anymore due to their Easy Anti-cheat system, I could get my account banned if I even tried to stream it.

Would you confirm this? i would admit i'm baffled if that's the case... I mean, it's literally just remote playing from my PC...

Thks!

You're mixing a few things up here.
1. You'll be streaming over your LAN, not Internet. As such, your internet connection doesn't matter.
2. Since the game will be running in Windows (merely streamed to your Deck, not running there), they won't be running on Linux meaning no issues with AC whatsoever.

[MrSheoko]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by Sheoko:

Actually, my primary games are EuroTruck Simulator 2, NBA2K, Crusader Kings, Hitman... but I do play Apex here and then, that's the only MP shooter I play and I like to come back to it on a weekly basis (that's maybe not "a lot" as I was saying in my initial post, but I still would have loved to play it on the Deck).

Talking about streaming, I really thought about it honestly, since I got a pretty good internet connection at home and aiming at playing only at home.

I saw reports and guys on Reddit saying that I should pay attention to the games I would like to stream/remote play through SteamLink/Moonlight, such as Apex, BO6, FC25...

According to them, since these games are not supporting Linux anymore due to their Easy Anti-cheat system, I could get my account banned if I even tried to stream it.

Would you confirm this? i would admit i'm baffled if that's the case... I mean, it's literally just remote playing from my PC...

Thks!

You're mixing a few things up here.
1. You'll be streaming over your LAN, not Internet. As such, your internet connection doesn't matter.
2. Since the game will be running in Windows (merely streamed to your Deck, not running there), they won't be running on Linux meaning no issues with AC whatsoever.

Yup, sorry about that, that's what I intended to say tho, my LAN, not "internet", correct (sorry I'm not a native english speaker!)

So basically, all the reports I've read saying I could get ban from Apex or even Steam by remote playing games such as Apex, BO6, FC25 on ly SteamDeck through my PC are totally BS?

Sorry if I'm asking too much but I want to make sure I don't do anything that would get me banned.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Sheoko:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

You're mixing a few things up here.
1. You'll be streaming over your LAN, not Internet. As such, your internet connection doesn't matter.
2. Since the game will be running in Windows (merely streamed to your Deck, not running there), they won't be running on Linux meaning no issues with AC whatsoever.

Yup, sorry about that, that's what I intended to say tho, my LAN, not "internet", correct (sorry I'm not a native english speaker!)

So basically, all the reports I've read saying I could get ban from Apex or even Steam by remote playing games such as Apex, BO6, FC25 on ly SteamDeck through my PC are totally BS?

Sorry if I'm asking too much but I want to make sure I don't do anything that would get me banned.

My grandmother used to tell me, if I don't properly wash fruit before eating, spider eggs on that fruit will hatch on my stomach and eat me from inside out. Now washing fruit before eating isn't the worst idea one can have, still a stupidly ridiculous thing to believe. She also said when I go out bare-footed, I'll step into a glass shard which then will travel to my heart and kill me. I've stepped on a few glass shards in my life and while turning a nicely white sock red isn't the most pleasant experience, that heart-shard-kill thing is ridiculous to believe.

Humans like to be afraid of nonsensical things. I can't understand what humans get out of this, but it's s a thing they do.

You won't get any bans for running the game on Windows and streaming. Hell, you won't even get banned for trying to play the game on SteamOS! What you may get a ban for, is to try to get the non-working game/AV to work (on Steam OS, that is).

There's 3 loosely related cases here, one might yield a ban, the others two won't.
Humans got a habit of lumping loosely related concepts into one, pretending them to be the same thing.

So well, unless you go out of yourself he way to "hack" those games/ACs to run on Linux, you'll be fine. There's a difference between caution and paranoia.

[MrSheoko]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by Sheoko:

Yup, sorry about that, that's what I intended to say tho, my LAN, not "internet", correct (sorry I'm not a native english speaker!)

So basically, all the reports I've read saying I could get ban from Apex or even Steam by remote playing games such as Apex, BO6, FC25 on ly SteamDeck through my PC are totally BS?

Sorry if I'm asking too much but I want to make sure I don't do anything that would get me banned.

My grandmother used to tell me, if I don't properly wash fruit before eating, spider eggs on that fruit will hatch on my stomach and eat me from inside out. Now washing fruit before eating isn't the worst idea one can have, still a stupidly ridiculous thing to believe. She also said when I go out bare-footed, I'll step into a glass shard which then will travel to my heart and kill me. I've stepped on a few glass shards in my life and while turning a nicely white sock red isn't the most pleasant experience, that heart-shard-kill thing is ridiculous to believe.

Humans like to be afraid of nonsensical things. I can't understand what humans get out of this, but it's s a thing they do.

You won't get any bans for running the game on Windows and streaming. Hell, you won't even get banned for trying to play the game on SteamOS! What you may get a ban for, is to try to get the non-working game/AV to work (on Steam OS, that is).

There's 3 loosely related cases here, one might yield a ban, the others two won't.
Humans got a habit of lumping loosely related concepts into one, pretending them to be the same thing.

So well, unless you go out of yourself he way to "hack" those games/ACs to run on Linux, you'll be fine. There's a difference between caution and paranoia.

You're right about all this, gotcha. Thanks a lot for your feedback. I got into a lil bit of paranoia as you said, but maybe that's because I sometimes tend to believe people saying stuff more than logic and good sense.

Thanks a lot for your wise advice brother. Have a nice day!

[ReBoot]

If I may offer advice, I suggest listening specifically to context & content more than passion someone's using. If trying to understand what someone's talking about feels mushy (while passionate), it's less credible, than reason. Also, non-sequitur are a red flag by default.

Also, humans are REALLY weird. They prefer sharing stuff that riles them up to actually checking what they're sharing before sharing. My point is, if someone warns of something, they may just as well not have good intentions.

[MrSheoko]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

If I may offer advice, I suggest listening specifically to context & content more than passion someone's using. If trying to understand what someone's talking about feels mushy (while passionate), it's less credible, than reason. Also, non-sequitur are a red flag by default.

Also, humans are REALLY weird. They prefer sharing stuff that riles them up to actually checking what they're sharing before sharing. My point is, if someone warns of something, they may just as well not have good intentions.

You're right again. Thanks mate.