Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says the company has no plans to update Fortnite for Steam Deck compatibility.
Sweeney spoke about a possible Steam Deck port of Fortnite on Twitter, saying that Linux and Epic’s confidence in its security was the primary motivation. According to Sweeney, he isn’t convinced that Linux, the OS on which SteamOS is based, and its custom kernel configurations, could properly combat cheating in Fortnite. For Sweeney, it seems the decision not to move forward is about scale.
With regard to anti-cheat on the Linux platform supporting custom kernels and the threat model to a game of Fortnite’s size, YES THAT’S EXACTLY RIGHT!
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) February 7, 2022
Fortnite isn’t available on Steam anyway, but consider that beside the point. Sweeney’s comment rules out a Linux version in any capacity, which means a version that could run natively on SteamOS is out too.
This might all seem a bit strange because, as Sam Byford at The Verge explains, Epic’s own anti-cheat software, Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC), is compatible with Linux. Further, one of Steam Deck’s most vaunted features is its use of a compatibility layer in Linux called Proton. If a developer has compiled a Windows version of their game for Steam, Proton is what will allow it to run on Linux or the Steam Deck.
As a result, the gut response from those in the replies was that Sweeney wasn’t being entirely truthful, and that he just didn’t want his most popular game on a competing storefront’s platform. So he addressed that too:
Epic would be happy to put Fortnite on Steam. We wouldn’t be happy to give Steam 20-30% of its revenue for the privilege. Supporting Steam Deck hardware is a separate issue, but the market for non-Steam-hosted games on limited availability Steam Deck hardware is how big exactly?
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) February 8, 2022
Sweeney then got back to his usual schedule of posting about business and needling Apple.
You can find out more about the Steam Deck over on our explainer page.
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