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As Epic Games continue ignoring Linux / Steam Deck for Fortnite they're putting it on Windows Arm

By -
Last updated: 14 Mar 2025 at 1:58 pm UTC

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.
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enigmaxg2 21 hours ago
@hardpenguin That "mystery" is called Micro$oft...
wytrabbit 11 hours ago
  • Mega Supporter
@finaldest If that is true, why would you choose Epic over GOG, since GOG sell games that let you own it for life? They both have open source launchers, they both have popular storefronts, but Epic offers the same licensing as Steam where you don't actually own the game just a license to play it.
wytrabbit 11 hours ago
  • Mega Supporter
@poiuz I'm sorry I guess your memory is rather hazy regarding how much time, money, and effort Valve have put into Linux improvements as a whole. This is from just over 2 years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/zopqs3/valve_is_paying_100_opensource_developers_to_work/

Valve is Paying 100+ Open-Source Developers to work on Linux Technologies

See except for the recent The Verge interview with Valve.

Griffais says the company is also directly paying more than 100 open-source developers to work on the Proton compatibility layer, the Mesa graphics driver, and Vulkan, among other tasks like Steam for Linux and Chromebooks.

This is how Linux gaming has been able to narrow the gap with Windows by investing millions of dollars a year in improvements.

https://www.theverge.com/23499215/valve-steam-deck-interview-late-2022

The addition of Proton is in fact so significant that before Valve releasing it, you had to run the entire Steam application with WINE if you wanted to play Windows games with any decent reliability. Times were wild.
ElamanOpiskelija 6 hours ago
I think it is worth mentioning that most games have worked on Windows ARM either day one or after a couple of Snapdragon driver patches, anyway, without need of support from the developer. It's just the usual suspects, Fortnite and Valorant and League of Legends and perhaps PUBG and their shenanigans, that give trouble as they give trouble also in Linux.
CatKiller 4 hours ago
  • Supporter Plus
If that is true, why would you choose Epic over GOG, since GOG sell games that let you own it for life? They both have open source launchers, they both have popular storefronts, but Epic offers the same licensing as Steam where you don't actually own the game just a license to play it.
GOG also only sells you a licence to play it - that's how software works. It's exactly the same if you buy a physical copy, for that matter.
tancop 4 hours ago
  • New User
not defending epic on this one but some devs dont trust linux because cheaters can modify the kernel to break anticheat. the only real solution for that is verified boot with a signature whitelist. that would mean you can only play on popular distros with one of their official kernels but its better than nothing
CatKiller 4 hours ago
  • Supporter Plus
not defending epic on this one but some devs dont trust linux because cheaters can modify the kernel to break anticheat. the only real solution for that is verified boot with a signature whitelist. that would mean you can only play on popular distros with one of their official kernels but its better than nothing
It's not the only solution, just the one that they prefer.
wytrabbit 3 hours ago
  • Mega Supporter
GOG also only sells you a licence to play it - that's how software works. It's exactly the same if you buy a physical copy, for that matter.

GOG sells you an actual lifetime ownership license. The publisher cannot remove the game from your library once you buy it. https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/gog-reminds-everyone-why-they-should-buy-games-there-and-not-steam-or-epic-games
CatKiller 3 hours ago
  • Supporter Plus
GOG sells you an actual lifetime ownership license. The publisher cannot remove the game from your library once you buy it.
No they do not. They neither have ownership of the games, nor can they sell that ownership to you. You are licensed to use the games, and they are authorised to sell that licence to you. They reserve the right to remove all the games from your library.

We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a 'license') to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.
https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User-Agreement?product=gog


Last edited by CatKiller on 15 Mar 2025 at 7:30 pm UTC
Kimyrielle 2 hours ago
the only real solution for that is verified boot with a signature whitelist. that would mean you can only play on popular distros with one of their official kernels but its better than nothing

No. The only working solution would be to design the games to be cheat-resilient in the first place, under the assumption that the client cannot be trusted at any time. This notion that a game developer would somehow be able to wrest control of a PC from its very owner is ridiculous. People who think that ever works don't really understand security.
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