Thanks to some effort from the team behind Lutris (and Wine of course), you can now run the Epic Store quite easily on Linux.
The official Lutris Twitter account posted this yesterday:
Good news! @EpicGames Store is now fully functional under Linux if you use Lutris to install it! No issues observed whatsoever. lutris.net/games/epic-gam… @TimSweeneyEpic will probably like this
What's interesting is that Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, directly replied to their Twitter post to say "Great work!" but even more interestingly they also sent another Tweet with this:
@LutrisGaming please consider applying: unrealengine.com/en-US/megagran…
So while the Epic Store doesn't have a Linux version currently on their roadmap, it seems they are at least willing in some way to support a community effort of getting it running on Linux. Not ideal of course but better than nothing? Considering all the free games the Epic Store are giving out and likely plenty of them will work fine in Wine, this might be quite interesting for some of our readers.
I tested it out briefly and it does indeed work nicely, thanks to Lutris it really is a one-click install:
To my surprise, installing (and actually playing) The Witness which is currently free on the Epic Store, worked fine as well. Honestly, I'm shocked at how easy this all is.
Personally, I still hope that one day Epic Games do bring their store to Linux officially. I would honestly love to play Fortnite properly on Linux, as I'm sure plenty of others would as there's nothing like it available on Linux. There's some that may be slightly similar but nothing really close.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
So, this is my take on it: (1) Get an Epic account and pick up the free games. (2) Avoid buying on the Epic store as much as possible (until the current situation changes). (3) Keep buying native Linux games on stores that support us, typically Steam, GOG, itch.io, Humble, and similar. (4) If you have to buy a Windows-only title, at least try to buy it on Steam and play it with Proton, to boost Linux play and purchase statistics.
Quoting: g000hI've gone through...I share your views on this. This whole epic store debacle had an extra bite for Linux users as Steam is in-arguably the better store for us, and that just isn't going to change anytime soon. Proton is fantastic. Even if Epic came out with a native Linux store, without proton our options become very limited. Of course the excellent people working on Lutris gives us a nice easy way to avoid that issue.
A big concern right now is that Valve may have to scale back spending on their non-store related projects so that they can focus on seeing off the competition from Epic. I expect that they are deep enough into Linux now as to make that a secure part of their future, but I'd be disappointed if they stopped working on their hardware too.
To play devils advocate on the exclusivity issue, there aren't many ways for Epic to establish themselves as a viable competition to Steam right now, and their fortnite money will only last so long. It is an abhorrent anti-consumer practice for sure but we will have to wait and see whether it is a sign of how they will act in the long term, once fully established. One hopes (without any reason for hoping this) that exclusivity is a temporary measure.
. . . Ask me if I care.
QuoteTim Sweeney
@TimSweeneyEpic
Replying to @JamesWidman @_photex_ and
Installing Linux is sort of the equivalent of moving to Canada when one doesn’t like US political trends.
Nope, we’ve got to fight for the freedoms we have today, where we have them today.
3:44 PM - 15 Feb 2018
If you want to use WINE to help pay his electric bill, go for it. I'll stick with Steam and GOG.
Quoting: g000h(4) If you have to buy a Windows-only title, at least try to buy it on Steam and play it with Proton, to boost Linux play and purchase statistics.So many reasons to be annoyed by the Epic store I hadn't even thought of this angle. To be sure, a store with no Linux client and no Linux games and nothing like Proton is going to record all Linux users and all Linux purchases as Windows. We can use it but we will be non-persons; all use of the Epic store rather than Steam will look like a drop in Linux gaming. And no matter how many Linux gamers use the store Sweeney will have no motivation to improve our situation because we will be invisible to him.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 18 April 2019 at 4:01 pm UTC
Based on that thread, it's absolutely mind-boggling to think that it's anything other than absolutely trivial for this company to support our platform. But instead, they'd rather throw a rounding error at Lutris devs to absolve all support burden and keep us at arm's length, while they continue to throw anywhere between $5M-$50M at AAA devs to go exclusive on their store.
Pretty depressing. So, well done Lutris devs. I hope they go for and get the grant. But no thanks, not for me. Not touching anything to do with these anti-consumer... people. And Tim Sweeney... urgh. The hypocrisy just gets my goat.
Quoting: scaineSo, developer Lars Doucet did an interesting twitter thread on Epic's money recently. Have a read here.A great thread, although I think he missed out marketing expenses, which can be very big--the bigger the studio, the bigger marketing expenses tend to loom, even in proportion to size. However, the basic point that Epic == Swimming In Dough still holds, especially since he flat out deliberately ignored all of their normal revenue sources other than Fortnite; presumably those normal revenue sources would be enough to pay for the marketing.
Based on that thread, it's absolutely mind-boggling to think that it's anything other than absolutely trivial for this company to support our platform. But instead, they'd rather throw a rounding error at Lutris devs to absolve all support burden and keep us at arm's length, while they continue to throw anywhere between $5M-$50M at AAA devs to go exclusive on their store.
Pretty depressing. So, well done Lutris devs. I hope they go for and get the grant. But no thanks, not for me. Not touching anything to do with these anti-consumer... people. And Tim Sweeney... urgh. The hypocrisy just gets my goat.
Last edited by Shmerl on 18 April 2019 at 4:19 pm UTC
qptain Nemo Apr 18, 2019
Quoting: Purple Library GuySo Linux users can now use the Epic store!Do you care?
. . . Ask me if I care.
Quoting: omer666@epic, look at Quake Champions. That's the kind of games we want to play: Violent, fast-paced FPS. Not some gimmicky nonsense for kids.
I agree. In watching videos of Fortnite, it just looks slow and boring. I play Ballistic Overkill. The game is fast paced, fun to play and runs great on Linux.
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