Support us on Patreon
PayPalMicrosoft has today announced that the massive free to play game Fortnite is now on Xbox Cloud Gaming, this makes it easier than ever to play it on Linux and Steam Deck. Of course, you first need to be registered with a Live / Xbox account but there's no subscription required to play this and overall it actually works far better than using GeForce NOW to stream it.
Tested working across both Chrome and Edge, at least until some day in the far future when Epic decide to get Fortnite running on Linux properly, this is likely the best way to do it.
For the Steam Deck specifically:
- Make sure Chrome is installed (available via the Non-Steam menu in the Steam Library), or via Discover in Desktop Mode.
- In Desktop Mode enter this into the Konsole terminal app:
flatpak --user override --filesystem=/run/udev:ro com.google.Chrome
This enables the Deck Gamepad controller to work. - If you wish to auto-launch Xbox Cloud Gaming with Chrome, add this to the very end of the launch options (right click -> properties on Chrome in Steam):
--window-size=1024,640 --force-device-scale-factor=1.25 --device-scale-factor=1.25 --kiosk "https://xbox.com/play" - Go back to the main Gaming Mode on Steam Deck, tap Chrome in your Steam Library and set Steam Input (the Gamepad icon on the right) into Gamepad with Mouse Trackpad.
- Launch Chrome, and enjoy.
Here's a quick video of it in action:
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Direct Link
Direct Link
I also tested it working on my main Fedora Linux desktop and it works just fine in Chrome and Edge, although the resolution wasn't great on my 1080p monitor. On the Steam Deck, it looks just fine with the resolution.
This was possible with GeForce NOW (as shown by me before), but the experience is a lot more fluid and there's less hassle with launcher logins and Fortnite seems to perform a lot better this way too.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
12 comments
Man, fuck fortnite
Edit: Important news though
Last edited by dude on 5 May 2022 at 6:05 pm UTC
Edit: Important news though
Last edited by dude on 5 May 2022 at 6:05 pm UTC
5 Likes, Who?
Man, fuck fortnite
Edit: Important news though
I don't care about fortnite, but I love to see fortnite and EAC even that I don't play any of it.
Man, fuck Tim Sweeney
4 Likes, Who?
mr-victory May 5, 2022
but there's no subscription required to play thisHow did I miss that part when reading the article for the first time...
So if sb invites me for Fortnite now I can actually say yes. EDIT: Region block :facepalm: (Yes I dualboot and yes Fortnite is installed by me (!) to Win but I never use it, it is for others)
Last edited by mr-victory on 5 May 2022 at 7:30 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
RandomizedKirbyTree47 May 6, 2022
I don't care for Fortnite. However, the fact that you don't need a subscription has caught my attention. I hadn't considered trying it before because I don't like subscriptions. I hope they eventually extend this policy to other games that do interest me.
Meanwhile, Stadia lets you play all games on their store without a subscription. I remain disappointed that Stadia fared comparatively worse due to a combination of bad marketing, no first-party exclusives, and, ironically, people spreading FUD falsely claiming that you need a subscription to play on Stadia (which you don't.)
Meanwhile, Stadia lets you play all games on their store without a subscription. I remain disappointed that Stadia fared comparatively worse due to a combination of bad marketing, no first-party exclusives, and, ironically, people spreading FUD falsely claiming that you need a subscription to play on Stadia (which you don't.)
1 Likes, Who?
and, ironically, people spreading FUD falsely claiming that you need a subscription to play on Stadia (which you don't.)I think normally for something to qualify as FUD, it needs to be known to be false by the persons saying it, who are doing so because for other reasons they want to deep-six whatever they're criticizing. In the case of Stadia, most of the people saying it needed a subscription said that because they honestly thought it was the case, because Stadia were incredibly muddled in their messaging and it was actually hard to tell that you didn't need one. So that's not really FUD, even though it's inaccurate information and does make someone look bad.
2 Likes, Who?
I really dislike Epic these days, and I used to be a massive fan. So much so that I refuse to install their store, even with the promise of free games.
Still, I can see some people love games like Fortnite, so it's sad that Epic won't just enable anticheat for Linux and be done with it. Playing games through streaming services suck in my experience.
Still, I can see some people love games like Fortnite, so it's sad that Epic won't just enable anticheat for Linux and be done with it. Playing games through streaming services suck in my experience.
1 Likes, Who?
mr-victory May 6, 2022
Playing games through streaming services suck in my experience.I tried Fortnite on cloud too and it sucked hard both with 5 GHz WiFi and wired. Heavy (1 sec+) input lag, dropped frames, low resolution.(probably 720p) Hardly playable. Perhaps it has something to do with that I had to use VPN.
0 Likes
Highly probable.Playing games through streaming services suck in my experience.I tried Fortnite on cloud too and it sucked hard both with 5 GHz WiFi and wired. Heavy (1 sec+) input lag, dropped frames, low resolution.(probably 720p) Hardly playable. Perhaps it has something to do with that I had to use VPN.
In other cases, is a win, you'd need to be online anyway to play it, so what's left is a free game in a free streaming hosting, low power consumption on your device.
Last edited by kokoko3k on 6 May 2022 at 3:25 pm UTC
0 Likes
mr-victory May 6, 2022
Yes! And no wasted disk space!
Seriously, #FreeFortnite is real now
You need sth very powerful to play it, Fortnite struggles maintaining 60 FPS on 1080p@High on my 3050 Laptop GPU.
Seriously, #FreeFortnite is real now
You need sth very powerful to play it, Fortnite struggles maintaining 60 FPS on 1080p@High on my 3050 Laptop GPU.
0 Likes
RandomizedKirbyTree47 May 6, 2022
You're right. Thanks for the correction.and, ironically, people spreading FUD falsely claiming that you need a subscription to play on Stadia (which you don't.)I think normally for something to qualify as FUD, it needs to be known to be false by the persons saying it, who are doing so because for other reasons they want to deep-six whatever they're criticizing. In the case of Stadia, most of the people saying it needed a subscription said that because they honestly thought it was the case, because Stadia were incredibly muddled in their messaging and it was actually hard to tell that you didn't need one. So that's not really FUD, even though it's inaccurate information and does make someone look bad.
1 Likes, Who?
TheRiddick May 8, 2022
Tim is probably furious that he can't backdoor peoples machines and get all their data...
0 Likes
mr-victory May 9, 2022
Tim is probably furious that he can't backdoor peoples machines and get all their data...Isn't kernel level EAC a backdoor?
0 Likes
See more from me