Ignoring one smaller market while gleefully supporting another, Epic Games have announced they're getting Fortnite along with Epic Online Services Anti-Cheat on Windows Arm.
Announced March 13th by Epic Games in a news post they said:
We are working with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to add Windows on Snapdragon support to Epic Online Services Anti-Cheat, also known as Easy Anti-Cheat, and make Fortnite available for Windows on Snapdragon devices later this year. This will help developers bring more games to more devices.
Worth noting that Epic's Easy Anti-Cheat does support Linux (including Steam Deck with SteamOS Linux), and there's many games that are supported (check out our dedicated anti-cheat section). However, EAC doesn't support the kernel-level side of it on Linux, which has resulted in a number of games actually removing support like Apex Legends.
Tim Sweeney of Epic Games previously said back in late 2023 that it wouldn't make sense to support Fortnite on Steam Deck until it has "tens of millions of users". I still have my doubts Epic will ever do it, even if the amount of Steam Deck users and SteamOS devices (with a public SteamOS Beta coming) continue to increase, since Epic firmly see Valve as a competitor with their Epic Games Store. Not that the Epic Store is actually doing well, as it continues coasting on revenue from Fortnite while seeing a cut in third-party game spending.
Still, money talks, and what Sweeney said does still make sense purely from a business standpoint — they want to see the big bucks come in from each platform they add. Especially when Epic have others to keep happy like Tencent, Disney, Sony and more who have invested in them. Windows overall is already big, and Windows on Arm is likely to get bigger quite quickly with Epic noting it's a "rapidly growing segment of the PC gaming market".
Who knows, maybe Epic and Sweeney will prove me wrong one day and actually get Fortnite on Linux platforms. For that, we need those millions of users, and our only hope clearly is Valve for that. So I do hope we get a Steam Deck 2 and eventually a proper living room box. Valve did only just reveal that 330 million hours were played on Steam Deck in 2024 up 64% from 2023 so there's plenty of hope there.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
hardpenguin 9 hours ago
The industry works in mysterious and quite silly ways.
dziadulewicz 7 hours ago
For that, we need those millions of users
Or just wait for Sweeney be removed, replaced by a person who'll gladly accept also the money of Linux gamers. Sweeney is nothing but pants
grigi 7 hours ago
Pyrate 7 hours ago
Mohandevir 6 hours ago
As Epic Games continue ignoring Linux...... I'll continue to ignore them. Simple as that.
Edit: Seriously, I don't feel like I'm missing much. Meaning... Missing anything.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 14 Mar 2025 at 12:47 pm UTC
legluondunet 6 hours ago
Lachu 5 hours ago
finaldest 5 hours ago
Even if Epic games decided to fully support linux and offer 100's of free games I would still NOT use their service. Would never want to support such a toxic company and this article just proves my point. They would rather support a non existent platform out of spite just to stick it to Linux users.
Tuxee 4 hours ago
To be honest, I prefer buying games on Epic Games now. Steam is the only proprietary user space application I use and I'd definitely like to get rid of it. With Epic Games, I don't have that problem at all. I can simply download and play via Minigalaxy, legendary or HGL for example.
Interesting. And the games you bought on Epic and which are running on your machine are not proprietary user space applications?
Seriously, this must be the most awkward "justification" I've heard in a long time. To sum it up: You are running Linux because you are oh so deeply into this open source philosophy and therefore despise the company which frequently and substantially fosters your open source ecosystem BUT shop instead on a company's store who openly fights your open source operating system. What puts the cherry on the cake is of course that Valve is the main reason why you can actually play your Epic-obtained Windows games on your open source OS.
Did I get that right?
Mohandevir 4 hours ago
pb 3 hours ago
Kimyrielle 
3 hours ago
Seriously, I don't feel like I'm missing much. Meaning... Missing anything.
Same here. I don't think I will ever play any game made by Epic, as I am just not into shooters. Problem is that Fortnite IS a very popular game, and having it run in Linux would remove one obstacle for people to switch. Keep in mind we're living in a time and age when people largely ignore new games and play popular existing ones for years instead. Fortnite is one of these.
tfk 2 hours ago
poiuz 2 minutes ago
I remember back when I worked at GOG.com (CD Projekt group) they announced internally they might release a version of Gwent card game for Windows Phone but not for Linux 😛Except, Windows Phone sold a lot of devices (Lumia alone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Lumia#Sales ).
The industry works in mysterious and quite silly ways.
Granted, not all of them were "gamers" but there were a lot devices by other manufacturers, too. In comparison, Steam Deck sales seem to be abysmal.
What puts the cherry on the cake is of course that Valve is the main reason why you can actually play your Epic-obtained Windows games on your open source OS.That's not true. Wine is the main reason we can actually play Windows games on our system. That's really disrespectful to ignore the almost 32 years of development history. Without Wine, DXVK & Proton are nothing.
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