Battlefield 6 Will Need Secure Boot, Making Players Mad
Electronic Arts has said its new game, Battlefield 6, will make players change their motherboard's UEFI settings to play the game. This is rare for a modern video game, which usually makes it easy to start playing.
To play the shooter, users have to turn on the Secure Boot and make sure their system disk uses GPT partitioning. If not done, the game will show an error when starting. EA says this step is key for its anti-cheat systems to work well.
EA's Reason Stopping Cheaters
The company said this step is needed to keep users safe. "Secure Download lets games by EA... find and remove malware, so it stops cheaters and makes the game better," they noted. This feature makes sure only safe, checked software runs during the game.
Why Players are Having Trouble
Even with EA giving clear steps, the need has caused a lot of unhappy players. Many face big problems:
- Issues with Custom Drivers: Secure Boot stops the use of unsigned or custom drivers. One player said they could not play because it turned off their custom Realtek sound driver, needed for their surround sound setup. They must choose between good sound in the game or playing it at all.
- Tech Problems: Some players can't or don't want to change bootloader settings.
- Boot Failures: Some who try to change things forget to switch their partition scheme to GPT, leading to their computer not starting.
The Battlefield 2042 Case Before
This rule was also used for Battlefield 2042, and it went badly. The game's recent rating on Steam has dropped to 38%. Bad reviews often say the game is now unplayable for them because of the Secure Boot need.
Players say the reasons include having older motherboards that don't support the feature, or just not wanting to change deep system settings just to play one game.
