As always, more nuance is inside, but some major bullet points:
- native Linux support for the launcher
- very openly vibe coded, if that’s a line in the sand for you
- Fortnite will be, but is not yet, updated with a new version of Easy Anti Cheat to be compatible with Linux. Yes, there are versions of EAC compatible with Linux today, but not up to Epic’s standards of cheat prevention, and whatever is up to their standards requires coordination with distro maintainers.
- their FAQ openly mentions the necessity of compatibility layers, but I don’t see any mention of native integration with them
Please vibe code the anti cheat. Wanna see it fall so badly
Maybe I’m being dumb, but why would I use this over Heroic? Is it meant to be a Heroic replacement or just the “official” client? Genuine question
It’s the official client, but I also doubt Heroic will play as nicely with live service games like Fortnite. There’s a decent chance that if you only play offline games, Heroic might remain better.
Ah, fair enough. I’ll probably stick with Heroic then
I’m sure I’ll get shredded for this, but I don’t understand what everyone is so mad about. This is a net good thing that will raise Linux awareness and adoption. You don’t have to install the Epic Launcher or Fortnite and its anticheat if you don’t want to. And if you’re worried about the kernel level change - if that is what’s required - then compile your kernel without it. Or don’t load the module if that’s how it’s implemented. And “working with distributions” doesn’t even make sense. The kernel is the kernel. I know there are variations, but that does not a distribution make. If you don’t want the change, fork it and remove it. Or just use the fork where some one else did it for you. This is the whole point of Linux. It belongs to all of us and for each of us to the way we want.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
What Epic wants to do is make it so their game only runs if the kernel and its modules are all signed by an approved partner, hence the “working with distributions” bit. You wouldn’t be able to run any game with EAC if you customized your system setup, which includes running third-party drivers for your GPU, sound, and/or network cards, something that’s sometimes necessary on Linux due to poor manufacturer support.
Their “solution” to this is to suggest you make two boot entries - one for your actual system, and a second, locked-down one that passes attestation to play their games. That’s a huge ask for a game whose playerbase is mainly children.
We got Epic Games Launcher on Linux before GTA 6.
“if that’s a line in the sand for you”
Given I’m hearing instances of vibe coded software completely deleting a drive as a way to efficiently uninstall it…it really should be a hard line in the sand for most people. If programming is so hard they can’t do it, how can we reasonably trust that the software will be robust? Why would I want to trust it at all?
There are tens of thousands of instances of car crash deaths in the US every year, but it probably doesn’t stop you from using cars as a mode of transit. My stance is that I won’t use a shit program. AI makes it more likely that the program is going to be shit, but I’ve probably used something made with AI by now, including video games, that did its job and wasn’t shit. The Epic store client was shit before it was vibe coded too, so I didn’t use it. The biggest improvement here regardless of vibe coding is that Linux players will be officially supported customers, so if I buy a copy of Alan Wake II, I have some sort of assurance that I’ll have recourse as a customer against an update that makes it inoperable to me.
Code is code is code. Human or ai made.
Any idiot can swing a hammer, it takes a professional to build a house.
Ai useage is the same way. Any idiot can vibe out some slop, but a professional can use it as a proper tool to do a job or help them do theirs.
The problem with AI isn’t what it generates. It’s the training, the water consumption, the copyright and legal issues, and economics.
Ai in and of it self as a tool is fine as a concept. Shitty programs have always and will always exist. Ai didn’t change that in any way that really matters beyond there’s just more of them.
Cars are just a tool, like AI, cars dont’t make crashes, drivers do. Drivers are responsible for their driving, just as progrrammers are responsible for their coding. AI doesn’t make more likely shitty programs, people make it more likely. Tools are just that, tools that do and make things, the people behind those tools are the responsible for how are used.
Vibe coding is just bad practice, like horribly wrong practice in 2026. I haven’t read the TOS for the new client so I won’t argue about the part about officially supported customers but I wouldn’t be surprised if that weren’t the case.
cars don’t make crashes, drivers do
Designing our infrastructure for cars first instead of people first encourages crashes to an extraordinary degree, but now we’re getting a bit far from the metaphor.
I don’t know what the TOS allows for, but it’s Epic’s actions regarding new Linux customers that I’d be more interested in. I’m not going to be the guinea pig with their Linux endeavors, but I’ll wait to see what happens the first time a Linux customer runs into problems with a Windows game and its compatibility. At least Epic has an incentive to not be hostile toward those customers anymore.
Native Linux support doesn’t mean support for all distros. Wine is still your best bet.
Wine is still your best bet.
since we’re talking about Epic here hard liquor might be better
Holy shit! This is great news! My wife will be so excited!
Now if we could just get CoD.
Ew. Time to switch to BSD.
To all the people saying they hope this doesn’t work out, do yah want more people on Linux or not? For some, Fortnite will be the killer game that they have to stay on Windows for.
I don’t want people that switch for this reason on Linux. Why do you think Windows sucks? Lowest. Common. Denominator.
I don’t want people that switch for this reason on Linux.
What reasons do you allow people to switch to Linux? Would be good to have such list, because I can link to it and tell them they are not allowed for given reasons. Thank you in advance.
No need to gatekeep, you should want everyone to be lifted up and not just those you deem worthy
Windows sucks because the company that makes it is betting you won’t leave, and they keep stuffing it full of other revenue streams and ads for them even though the OS isn’t even free. I’m no fan of kernel anti-cheat, but incompatibility with games that use it is a huge barrier for people switching that would otherwise choose to.
The LCD’s can continue to suffer until they finally learn to stop accepting slop. Nothing is forcing them to play shitty games like Fortnite
This guy gets it
That switch for what reason? They can do what they want with their PC, like play a game? Being able to do what I want with my PC is the main reason I switched to Linux.
This isn’t how you do it. Compromising an OS with kernel level anti cheat isn’t the compromise I’m willing to make just to get some gamers to switch off a terrible OS.
Compromising an OS with kernel level anti cheat
But they use Kernel integrated functionality from Linux. The difference to Windows Kernel Anticheat is, that they won’t have root rights on the users system when playing the game (if I understand this correctly). This is actually how you do it right.
Kernel Level Anti Cheat does not work on Linux, they have to do it otherwise.
They are using Kernel integrated functionality. So its a Kernel Level Anti Cheat, isn’t it? The difference is, that they use integrated functionality and do not have root rights on the system, if I understand correctly.
That’s really fair. I forget that anticheats are kernel level I guess, as it makes no sense. Hopefully, as the other reply to my comment mentioned, it’s not kernel level.
Well it depends on the view. It uses Kernel functionality to do that, so it is Kernel level. They just don’t get access to root, but its run on Kernel level.
I’m not 100% read up on this but I’m cautiously optimistic that this doesn’t seem all that bad. It’s not kernel-level but appears good enough that it will have similar performance in detecting cheats.
Also seems like it should be fairly widely compatible. The bazzite team have already said they believe they should be compliant or have a clear path to being compliant.
requires coordination with distro maintainers
Which I really hope they just don’t get. Fuck Epic and fuck Tim Sweeney.
Ew epic games
RPS’s article has the most accurate title: “We vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher” because “programming is hard”, announce company we’re somehow supposed to see as a serious Steam competitor
Tried it and I’m surprised how much faster it is and how it now automatically shows all my Steam games. Still hoping Steam gets a redesign so the friends list isn’ta separate window
The beta launcher has a bunch of features disabled/absent compared to the main launcher, not the least being the shopping cart. Not surprising that it would load faster when it has less to do.
Nuke it from orbit.
Looks promising. Now if only they could bring Rocket League back to Linux natively.
