Abstract:
Epic Games is promoting the launch of Fortnite on Linux, planning to rebuild its anti-cheat system to solve the security and cheating prevention and control problems that have long hindered the game from entering the Linux platform. However, the company has not announced the specific launch time.
Epic released a Linux preview of the Epic Games Launcher on October 14, marking the first time the launcher is available to Linux users. While Fortnite still isn't available on Linux, Epic has made it clear that it hopes to eventually bring the game to the platform.
"Fortnite" has not been able to support Linux before, mainly due to cheating prevention and control. Epic's Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) anti-cheat service natively supports Linux, but Fortnite doesn't enable support for the platform. Back in February 2022, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said the company was not confident it could combat cheating at scale and effectively across a wide variety of Linux kernel configurations.
Now, Epic has announced that it will rebuild Easy Anti-Cheat for Linux, and the new version is called EAC Linux v2. Epic said in a blog post that to bring Fortnite to Linux, the company is rebuilding the EAC and working with each distribution's maintainers on security requirements. Once the initiative gains support from enough distribution maintainers, Epic will bring Fortnite to Linux via the Epic Games Launcher. Epic also plans to make these improvements available to other game developers to help them bring their games to Linux players.
EAC Linux v2 will be piloted first in Fortnite, Epic said. Epic engineering director Rick Dyster told The Verge that the company currently has no firm date for when Fortnite will launch on Linux.
In addition, Epic is also working on making Fortnite compatible with Valve's Linux-based SteamOS. However, Epic Games Store vice president and general manager Martin Kiley said the company has no plans to put Fortnite on Valve’s Steam store. Epic also pointed out that Steam Deck currently does not support the necessary features required for the EAC v2 solution, but the company is actively communicating with Valve and hopes to provide support in the future.
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