Fortnite Is Coming to Linux as Epic Rebuilds Easy Anti-Cheat
Will it appear on Steam Deck one day?
Fortnite will be playable on Linux in the future, as Epic Games is rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat to make sure it's safe to play on the OS – perhaps the main reason why so many games don't support the system (and Steam Deck).
Epic has released its new EGS launcher, infamously vibe-coded, and it's available on Linux for the first time. Soon, Fortnite will also enjoy Linux users' attention, but the company needs to tweak Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) to ensure everything is secure.
"We’ll also make these improvements available to other developers so they can bring their games to Linux players," Epic said.
While EAC has been able to run native Linux game clients since 2014, and Epic added support for running Windows game builds on Linux via Wine/Proton, that implementation couldn't offer the same level of protection as the Windows one.
This is one of the main reasons why many multiplayer games don't support the OS. Steam Deck is based on Linux, and EA, for example, blocked its access to Apex Legends two years ago, saying it was "a path for a variety of impactful exploits and cheats."
But if Epic succeeds, it could mean big changes for Linux gaming. The studio promises to bring the level of protection much closer to par with Windows, using a signed kernel and kernel modules, secure boot with attestation, TPM 2.0, measured boot, Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU), a kernel lockdown integrity mode, disabled kexec, and the LSM BPF.
Developers and enthusiasts can check out the technical details of the process here.
"The ideal solution for a cheat-free gaming environment is one where the operating system provides assurances to players that their data remains isolated from both anticheat and game companies while also ensuring that the gameplay cannot be tampered with. There have been many efforts over the years to build solutions like this including virtualization techniques to enable cheat free gaming, but to date they haven't gained traction. We hope they soon will, and we'll work with all willing companies in the industry to make this happen in the future. This includes continuing the Easy Anti-Cheat team's open line of communications with Valve to support Steam Hardware devices to the maximum extent technically possible."
Epic is reaching out to "leaders in the Linux community" and will co-host a panel discussion with Jef Spaleta, the Fedora Project leader, to "talk through the path to enabling fair competitive gaming on Linux for players."
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