Despite the Epic Games Store not offering Linux support at all, it still seems to be somewhat popular with Linux users as the unofficial Heroic Games Launcher hit a big downloads milestone. Taking into account that the project does now also support Windows and macOS, it was originally Linux-only up until July 2021 where it gained initial support for the others.
In early November developer Flávio F Lima noted Heroic had hit 100,000 downloads, and less than a month later it's hit another 10,000+ according to the GitHub project page.
Considering how many free games have been given out by Epic, it's not exactly surprising that quite a lot of Linux users have looked to Heroic to make things easier to manage. Still a shame that Epic don't support their store directly but I can personally confirm how well Heroic works as a way to download and get into games, as long as you don't mind them all running through a compatibility layer unsupported.
Nice to see an open source project like this doing so well.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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"Still a shame that Epic don't support their store directly"
actually i would still use heroic, or rare even if epic had a native linux client
why should i use a closed source client, when there are 2 open source alternatives?
actually i would still use heroic, or rare even if epic had a native linux client
why should i use a closed source client, when there are 2 open source alternatives?
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questioner9 Dec 2, 2021
Heroic is great :) . I wouldn't buy a game via Epic store since they don't support Linux, so use other stores which do, but I'm happy to claim the free games they give out each week and try them with Proton.
Much credit and thanks to Flávio F Lima and other contributors to Heroic on making it so easy. Also thanks to the developers of the Legendary backend.
Much credit and thanks to Flávio F Lima and other contributors to Heroic on making it so easy. Also thanks to the developers of the Legendary backend.
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I don't like epic and don't have an account on it, even with a lot of impressive games for free.
But I find fantastic that they at least "allow" third party apps, I mean, even Steam having a native app, it suck so much that I would use any alternative. Would be nice stores to Origin and UPlay too
But I find fantastic that they at least "allow" third party apps, I mean, even Steam having a native app, it suck so much that I would use any alternative. Would be nice stores to Origin and UPlay too
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Just as an aside Legendary itself also accumulated over 100k downloads as of last month (GitHub + PyPI, not counting the packages in Fedora, AUR, etc.).
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Quoting: fagnerlnI don't like epic and don't have an account on it, even with a lot of impressive games for free.Uhhh . . . does Valve do anything that would make a thing like Heroic impossible? I thought it's just nobody bothered because Steam is right there and mimicking the features would be a ridiculously big job.
But I find fantastic that they at least "allow" third party apps, I mean, even Steam having a native app, it suck so much that I would use any alternative. Would be nice stores to Origin and UPlay too
3 Likes, Who?
Vasya Sovari Dec 2, 2021
can confirm Heroic is the best way to claim free games I'll probably never play. Totally worth it
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100k? aside from fortinite players it might as well have more user than the official client, that thing suck
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apologies for my naivety on this but i have a few question:
1. do you have to run a separate client among the Heroic launcher to play games from the EA store ? i.e Heroic downloads the game but then installs the actual client in wine?
2. How (if any) is DRM handled, is it any different to the way steam does things with EA game is there any extra layer here or does it just depend on the specific game ? do all EA games released use a DRM layer authenticated via the client ?
3. Can i download or get a key from EA account using Heroic and then add it to steam and it show up in my library as a legit copy ( i don't expect that of course )
4. Can i somehow use the Heroic client to act as a buffer for the EA games that are bought on steam where it claims a 3rd party client is needed ?
sorry for the newb questions, i don't really support EA anymore, im just more intrigued as to how it works.
edit* 5. Is it easy to get proton working with this, instead of just using wine prefixes.
Last edited by Lofty on 3 December 2021 at 2:17 am UTC
1. do you have to run a separate client among the Heroic launcher to play games from the EA store ? i.e Heroic downloads the game but then installs the actual client in wine?
2. How (if any) is DRM handled, is it any different to the way steam does things with EA game is there any extra layer here or does it just depend on the specific game ? do all EA games released use a DRM layer authenticated via the client ?
3. Can i download or get a key from EA account using Heroic and then add it to steam and it show up in my library as a legit copy ( i don't expect that of course )
4. Can i somehow use the Heroic client to act as a buffer for the EA games that are bought on steam where it claims a 3rd party client is needed ?
sorry for the newb questions, i don't really support EA anymore, im just more intrigued as to how it works.
edit* 5. Is it easy to get proton working with this, instead of just using wine prefixes.
Last edited by Lofty on 3 December 2021 at 2:17 am UTC
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I'm not terribly familiar with EA games on EGS (or Steam for that matter), but if they require an extra client (Origin?) for Steam, I'm sure they do for EGS as well.
Heroic runs all games through Wine, since Epic does not have any Linux downloads.
Heroic is not doing anything for DRM; whether it sets up Origin like Steam does for those games that need/use it, I do not know.
You can add non-Steam games to Steam, but Steam isn't going to see them as "Steam copies". I imagine Origin has its own authentication mechanisms, which might link to Steam and/or EGS accounts.
No.
Yes, you can point it at any Wine or Proton instance.
Quoting: Lofty1. do you have to run a separate client among the Heroic launcher to play games from the EA store ? i.e Heroic downloads the game but then installs the actual client in wine?
Heroic runs all games through Wine, since Epic does not have any Linux downloads.
Quoting: Lofty2. How (if any) is DRM handled, is it any different to the way steam does things with EA game is there any extra layer here or does it just depend on the specific game ? do all EA games released use a DRM layer authenticated via the client ?
Heroic is not doing anything for DRM; whether it sets up Origin like Steam does for those games that need/use it, I do not know.
Quoting: Lofty3. Can i download or get a key from EA account using Heroic and then add it to steam and it show up in my library as a legit copy ( i don't expect that of course )
You can add non-Steam games to Steam, but Steam isn't going to see them as "Steam copies". I imagine Origin has its own authentication mechanisms, which might link to Steam and/or EGS accounts.
Quoting: Lofty4. Can i somehow use the Heroic client to act as a buffer for the EA games that are bought on steam where it claims a 3rd party client is needed ?
No.
Quoting: Lofty5. Is it easy to get proton working with this, instead of just using wine prefixes.
Yes, you can point it at any Wine or Proton instance.
1 Likes, Who?
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