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Epic Games will not Update Fortnite to Run Natively on the Steam Deck
Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, has announced that Fortnite will not be supported on Valve's mobile gaming device when it launches on February 25.
Sweeney noted that Epic is working hard to improve Easy Anti Cheat's compatibility for the Steam Deck. However, this is not for Fortnite according to his response to a question from another Twitter user.
Despite the fact that Fortnite isn't available on Steam, the Steam Deck is an open platform. Therefore, this allows users to install games that aren't available on Steam. Fortnite, like other large-scale online multiplayer games, has difficulty with its anti-cheat software on the Steam Deck's Linux-based operating system.
In another answer, he addressed a question about Proton/Wine compatibility with EAC and BattlEye anti-cheat on Linux.
“Yes, Epic will update Fortnite to make Proton/Wine compatible with EAC and BattlEye anti-cheat on Linux.”
Sweeney responded that while there are no plans to upgrade Fortnite, there is “a major effort underway” to improve Easy Anti Cheat for other Steam Deck games.
@TimSweeneyEpic Just a quick question, any plans to update @FortniteGame to make Proton/Wine be compatible with EAC and BattlEye anti-cheat on Linux?
— Stormy178 (@Stormy178) February 7, 2022
When other users questioned why Fortnite was left out of the program, Sweeney noted that it is due to scale. He noted that anti-cheat standards vary depending on how many regular players a game has.
When people pointed out that Sweeney doesn't seem to believe in his own product, the CEO agreed.
“In terms of anti-cheat on the Linux platform supporting custom kernels and the threat model to a game of the size of Fortnite,” he said.
In another response, he notes that Fortnite's 60 million active players set the game apart from others that use Easy Anti Cheat.
Speculations say that Sweeney doesn't want Epic's largest game to be played on competitor's hardware.
It's more probable that Steam Deck is too niche for Epic to invest time and effort to ensure compatibility.
So, what are your thoughts? Should fortnite be able to run on Steam Deck? Let us know over on our socials here or down in the comments below.
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