Epic says Fortnite will come to Linux after it finishes rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat for the platform, a change tied to a new version of the software called EAC Linux v2. In its announcement, Epic said, “Once [EAC Linux v2 is] working with a critical mass of distro maintainers, we’ll bring Fortnite to Linux via the Epic Games Launcher.”
The company said the same improvements will also be offered to other developers so they can bring their own games to Linux players. That makes Fortnite the clearest example of Epic’s plan, but not the only target. The company is treating the work as a broader anti-cheat update for Linux support across its ecosystem.
Linux gaming has grown quickly in recent years, helped in large part by Valve’s Proton compatibility layer. Proton lets many Windows games run on SteamOS, and it has been central to the Steam Deck’s rise. Even so, many large multiplayer games have stayed off the platform because supporting Linux can create extra security and cheating concerns.
Epic’s announcement goes straight at that problem. According to the company’s technical details, Easy Anti-Cheat has supported native Linux game clients since 2014. In 2021, Epic added support for Windows game builds running on Linux through Wine and Proton, but that support has been opt-in for each game.
Epic says many developers did not enable the Linux option because its implementation could not provide the same level of protection as the Windows version. The company says that is the gap it is now trying to close with EAC Linux v2.
How Epic says EAC Linux v2 will work
Epic says it is rebuilding its Linux anti-cheat system around existing Linux security features, including signed kernels, signed kernel modules, and secure boot with attestation. The company says this should bring Linux protection much closer to its Windows setup in the near term.
The plan also depends on distribution maintainers. Epic says the requirements build on work many Linux distro maintainers already do, and the more distributions that meet those requirements by default, the fewer players will need to change their systems to play. Epic asked maintainers to contact [email protected] if they have not already heard from the company.
Epic also said it wants the well-known key list used by EAC Linux v2 to become open source. In the meantime, it says it will maintain the list itself and welcomes pull requests from the community to expand it.
The company listed several signing authorities it expects to work with, including Canonical’s Master Certificate Authority for Ubuntu and derived distros such as Linux Mint, Fedora Secure Boot CA for Fedora and derived distros such as Silverblue, Universal Blue for Bazzite, Bluefin and Aurora, Debian Secure Boot CA, openSUSE Secure Boot CA, SUSE Linux Enterprise Secure Boot CA, Rocky Linux Secure Boot Root CA, and Microsoft UEFI CA for non-Microsoft components such as the Linux bootloader shim project.
Epic also said it has an open line of communication with Valve and wants to support Steam Hardware devices as far as it technically can. That detail matters because Valve’s ecosystem is one of the main reasons Linux gaming has gained so much momentum.
Steam Deck support is still not in place
One complication remains the Steam Deck. Epic said the Steam Deck does not currently support EAC Linux v2, and that it is “actively talking with Valve” about making it work.
PC Gamer also reported that Epic game security engineering director Rick Deist said the company is “investigating compatibility with Steam Deck and SteamOS devices.” Deist said, “We want to let players play where they want to play as much as possible.”
That leaves Fortnite’s Linux release tied to more than one technical hurdle. Epic is planning a Linux launch through the Epic Games Launcher, but the Steam Deck, which has become the most visible Linux gaming device, is not yet covered by the new system. Until that changes, Linux support would still reach only part of the audience Epic is trying to serve.
Epic’s timing also lines up with another platform update from the company. PC Gamer noted that Epic has released a new Epic Games Store client, and that it includes a Linux version for the first time.
Other multiplayer games may benefit too
Epic’s move could change how other studios think about Linux support, especially for competitive games. PC Gamer pointed to Facepunch COO Alistair McFarlane’s comments from last year about Rust, where he said the game is unsupported on Linux because of cheating.
McFarlane said, “There are no plans to support Proton or Linux.” He also said Linux is “a vector for cheat developers,” and argued that the studio would have a poorly maintained Linux setup because of the low user base. He said that after Rust stopped supporting Linux, the studio saw more cheat users exploiting Linux than legitimate users.
Epic’s new approach could change that calculation if the company can deliver a Linux anti-cheat system with stronger protections. For developers that have kept Linux support off the table, the question has been whether the platform can be opened without giving cheats an easier route in. Epic says EAC Linux v2 is meant to answer that concern with stronger safeguards and a more standardized setup.
The announcement also puts Fortnite in a more unusual position than before. The game has long been locked out of Linux despite its scale and reach, while many smaller games have already been running on the platform through Proton or native clients. If Epic completes the rollout with distro maintainers and Valve’s devices follow, Fortnite would become one of the biggest multiplayer titles to get a formal path to Linux support.
For now, Epic’s plan still depends on implementation work, distribution support, and Valve compatibility. Even so, the company has now said plainly that Fortnite is on the way to Linux once EAC Linux v2 is ready, and that the tools behind it will be shared with other developers too.
Linux Fortnite is nice and all, but if the Steam Deck still is not covered then that is half the hype gone. Epic loves a big announcement with an asterisk.
Deck still runs Linux tho
Sure, but Epic called it a separate compatibility issue, so the headline win is not the same as actual Deck support. I just do not want people to hear ‘Linux’ and assume the handheld is automatically in.
fair, but if they get the launcher version out first it still proves the anticheat can work on the platform. Deck or not, that is way more progress than ‘no plans’ ever was
Yeah, proving the tech matters. I am just keeping the hype in check until Valve devices are actually mentioned as supported, not just ‘we are talking’.
The signed kernel and secure boot part is the bit that caught my eye. If they really lean on distro maintainers instead of asking players to tweak everything by hand, that could make this a lot less messy than old Proton anti-cheat setups. Still, I wonder how strict the attestation will be for people on custom installs or older hardware. That is where these plans usually get awkward.
no Deck yet?
not yet and that is the annoying part. they are basically saying desktop linux first, handheld later if Valve gets the pieces in place
yeah, that is what i figured. still better than nothing, but i wanted this to hit SteamOS right away
The bigger win here may be for every other dev watching this. If Epic can make Linux anticheat less of a headache, a lot of studios that wrote the platform off might stop using cheating as the easy excuse.
i doubt it. most studios just do not want extra work for tiny linux player base, even if anticheat gets better
That is fair, the user base is still the problem. But if the security side stops looking scary, at least the excuse gets weaker and some teams might try it.
yeah, less excuse at least
open source the key list is wild