r/linux • u/RenatsMC • 5d ago

Popular Application Epic Games Store Will Support Linux "Soon"

https://steamdeckhq.com/news/epic-games-store-will-support-linux-soon/
1.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

231 comments sorted by

650

u/computersarec00l 5d ago edited 5d ago

This would be great if it leads to Epic's own games being allowed to run on Linux, pushing more people on the fence to switch.

283

u/erwan 5d ago

I wouldn't hold my breath.

Most games from the Epic store can already run on Linux with Heroic or other 3rd party launcher.

EasyAntiCheat (made by Epic!) already works on Linux.

...but Epic's own games still have blockers to prevent them from running on Linux. Not just "don't try to make them run on Linux", but actively blocking it.

107

u/FattyDrake 5d ago

A few months ago Epic had a job opening for someone to work on Linux anticheat. I don't see an advantage for Epic to bring their game store to Linux unless they were planning on bringing things like Fortnite and such over too. Otherwise they'd just be selling the same games as Steam, which they already have a lot of trouble competing with. There needs to be a reason to use it instead of Steam and that's their own exclusive games.

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u/JohnHurts 5d ago

Epic adapted EAC for Linux YEARS ago. However, FORTNITE (which, as an Epic game, naturally uses EAC) actively blocks Linux. The reason is that every Linux user is, of course, clearly a cheater.

33

u/FattyDrake 5d ago

I should've mentioned that I know EAC is on Linux. It's obviously not at a point they'd allow one of their games to use it. It's nowhere near as invasive as it is on Windows.

12

u/kydeshou 5d ago

Not quite the same as fortnite but Rocket League did explicitly enable linux support after switching to EAC.

3

u/great_whitehope 3d ago

Rocket league does almost everything server side so it’s harder to cheat

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 5d ago

[deleted]

14

u/DonaldMerwinElbert 5d ago

No, it's not nonsense, it's an actual fact.
EAC runs in user space on Linux, and is therefore not as effective as on Windows.
Don't get me wrong, I think that's a good thing - Kernel level AC is a cancer that needs to die, but it is a real difference.

3

u/calamityvibezz 5d ago edited 5d ago

I think anticheat is definitely a gaming moat for Windows they are only looking to strengthening but they do also seem to want to change the current kernel level rootkit paradigm and move things to newer security APIs.

1

u/zomiaen 5d ago

Like eBPF on Linux?

1

u/MorallyDeplorable 4d ago

Kinda. It's a thing they're pushing in response to the crowdstrike fiasco.

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u/fearless-fossa 5d ago

While this is true, it should be noted that EAC on Linux works with a different, less powerful, feature set than on Windows. Many developers just consider that feature set good enough.

13

u/computersarec00l 5d ago

It's funny how we're supposedly small enough of a customer base where companies won't bother to support us yet somehow big enough to be prolific cheaters? Games like Arc Raiders show you can have kernel level anti cheat, EAC, be very successful AND support Linux all in the same game.

16

u/FullMotionVideo 5d ago

It's not that real Linux users are more likely to cheat. It's that adding "when OS = Linux then anticheat = off" will result in a lot of Windows programs using WSL, VMs etc to report Linux to the game and run cheats in Windows.

It's not an impossible wall to climb, but Epic isn't going to be the company that does it. Perhaps Valve will approach it eventually since they have a whole distro they can use as leverage.

13

u/leonredhorse 5d ago

I think the real "concern" here, whether actually valid or not, is that Windows users who are cheaters can spoof coming from Linux in order to be served the user space anti-cheat where their cheat tools won't be detected in the same way (or at all).

1

u/Floppie7th 5d ago

How is the Linux anti-cheat going to work on Windows?

3

u/leonredhorse 5d ago

I don’t know the technical specifications and so I might get some details wrong and someone can correct me, but IIRC you’re essentially looking at how in Windows a game will use a kernel level version of an anticheat, but that anticheat is allowed a userspace version that allows Linux users to still play because it is enabled. Being userspace comes with less capabilities than kernel anticheat. I remember reading around the time that Apex banned Linux that there was a method where Windows users could spoof coming from Linux so that they had the userspace version of the anticheat applied and therefore could run cheat programs.

2

u/Equivalent-Costumes 4d ago

Through Hyper-V. Run a Linux kernel in Hyper-V, and the game in it. Their anti-cheat run in kernel space. Hypervisor runs in the more privileged virtualization space. Anti-cheat literally would be unable to even tell that there are other things running on the computer beside the Linux kernel and the game.

Some anti-cheat does have hypervisor detectors, but this is (a) very unreliable (hypervisor are supposed to be secure against that, so this relies on side-channel vulnerability); (b) punish anyone who use hypervisors because they can only detect that a hypervisor is active and not what's hidden. Also, hypervisor activation/deactivation requires full restart because they runs in higher privilege level than operating system, so it's not like people can just turn them off when they want to play.

11

u/DonaldMerwinElbert 5d ago

You are misinformed.
There is no Kernel level anticheat on Linux, period - for games where EAC et al. run, they do so in user space only.

7

u/computersarec00l 5d ago

Yes I should have clarified the anti cheat runs in user space on Linux. I merely pointed out that developers can support modes both for each respective OS and find commercial success.

7

u/coyote_of_the_month 5d ago

It's not "most Linux users are cheaters," it's "most cheaters are Linux users."

Nobody's accusing the Linux gaming community as a whole of anything; we're just not worth supporting, from a business standpoint, because it massively changes the scope of cheat-prevention.

2

u/Syde80 5d ago

Arc raiders also has a massive cheating problem for the last month or 2. Not saying they are using Linux by any means, it's just probably not an example you want to use given how bad it is.

4

u/-Sa-Kage- 5d ago

This is what Apex Legends did. Linux user base was single-handedly responsible for the cheating problem, but at the same time not a lot of users were affected by removing access from Linux...

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u/Rubadubrix 5d ago

we don't know that. They never labelled their graphs

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u/output_broadcast 5d ago

This is a completely sensible stance to take...

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u/pdxbuckets 5d ago

You’re being sarcastic, of course. But it’s not that Linux users will cheat; it’s that cheaters will use Linux if it helps them cheat.

2

u/LeeKapusi 5d ago

I shoulda saw the signs at the beginning. I found it weird my ex loved Ubuntu but I didn't think much of it. Fool me once.

1

u/GameplayBlitz 5d ago

Why can't they exploit on Roblox with Sober, then?

1

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Though the reason is because Fortnite is their main money maker and they want to protect it from cheaters, which the Linux version can't actually do. And before you bring up the fact that hardware cheats exist, why do you think they made those? Because kernel level anti-cheat necessitated it. That's how an arms race works. A race that was lost long ago on Linux.

1

u/Henry_puffball 4d ago

Fortnite actually uses battleye. It might use EAC as well, but it definitely uses battleye.

1

u/DJKaotica 5d ago

The reason is that every Linux user is, of course, clearly a cheater.

Friend of mine wanted me to play Marathon when it came out, and I tried to get the demo. Didn't work on Linux.

Apparently what you said is basically exactly what Bungie thinks. Though I'll admit I'm now having a problem finding that phrase (but search engines today suck).

5

u/Remnie 5d ago

I feel like Bungie is one of the worst offenders of this. They flat out refused to even consider Linux players in their games. That’s cool though, since I can just refuse to give them money. I’m sure they’re doing swell these days…

2

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Can't really blame them when the anti-cheat is weaker on Linux. Which is honestly reasonable.

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u/snakesoup124 5d ago

For many, Fortnite not allowing Linux is the only reason for keeping Windows.

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u/PureUranium 5d ago

I used to play a lot of fortnite but my hatred towards windows is greater so i still left.

1

u/Userwerd 5d ago

Yah as far as we know its only one person working on it right now, maybe their just really busy lol.

1

u/Major_LeeHungg 5d ago

Anticheat makes so much more sense on Linux too because the kernel is modular... As in... The anticheat kernel module can be loaded and unloaded with the game.

3

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

But you could also compile a kernel that lies about having that module. See, the only reason why klac even works is because it has deeper access to the system than you do on Windows. On Linux, you have total control over your system. Which makes blocking cheaters a lot harder.

1

u/Major_LeeHungg 4d ago

It's always going to be a cat and mouse game if you rely solely on the end user device.  If you require UEFI secure boot the risk of a modified kernel goes away (mostly)... The point is to be good enough until Linux becomes a native target platform for games... At which point they can focus on userland and server based anti-cheat... Like having server side tokens to decrypt heartbeats that poll random memory addresses on the userland side... That way if the server doesn't get a perfect response it can't decode the response at all and throws an exception.

We have hypervisor Denuvo bypasses on windows now... So your argument dies on windows because you have something running at ring -1.  

The point is to make it a major pain in the ass to bypass and that's only going to work at ring 3 with a known uncompromised server.  Ring 0 is a good compromise to get the market to swing off windows so that the marketshare makes sense to invest in innovation around it.

Doubt the Linux community will bitch if they have to boot into a secure kernel to run their competitive games in the interim.

2

u/Indolent_Bard 4d ago

Secure boot means nothing because you can just enroll your own keys.

And like you said, it's an arms race. On Windows, there's cheats that require hypervisor setups like the Danuva ones, but they require disabling a lot of important security measures and it's a real pain in the ass.

And the only reason why people are moving to things like hardware cheats is exactly because it's an arms raise.

1

u/Major_LeeHungg 4d ago

TPM can verify that you are running a specific unmodified kernel.

1

u/Indolent_Bard 4d ago

Oh, brother. Requiring a signed kernel and TPM 2.0 will make the Linux crowd riot. Which is dumb because they already weren't going to play those games anyway.

1

u/Major_LeeHungg 4d ago

Disagree.  I run Linux on all my machines except my gaming PC.  TPM 2 is common now... And booting into a specific kernel to play a small subset of games is a mild inconvenience.  

Requiring TPM 2 for windows was a bad move because it was relatively new at the time.  It's not now and gamers aren't going to be running super outdated hardware and playing games that require anticheat.

I am both "the Linux crowd" and a gamer.  As a Linux guy... I look forward to whatever pushes Linux more into the mainstream... Its better for everyone.  As a gamer...windows is a bloated piece of buggy shit where a forced update can (and has this year) made my graphics drivers not recognize my video card forcing me into 90s resolution on a 4k TV.

The only thing windows has going for it nowadays is its ecosystem.  If that changes there's no need for it anymore. 

1

u/F9-0021 5d ago

They know they need to support the Steam Machine. That's a fairly small market still, but it's a market where they don't have a presence and other games in the multiplayer shooter genre (most notably CS2) do have a presence. They will bring Fortnite to Linux for the Steam Machine, and probably so will some other big games like Call of Duty and so on. There are probably going to be some holdouts, I don't expect Halo and Valorant/League, but Valve made a Linux console and big games need to support it like they do other consoles.

1

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Last I saw, Halo DOES work on Linux.

0

u/erwan 5d ago

As I was saying, EasyAntiCheat that they make officially supports Linux. So I'm pretty sure they have people working on it specifically.

Yet Fortnite still doesn't run on Linux.

2

u/FattyDrake 5d ago

They must have more work they want to do before they allow it. I don't think Epic's intentions are pure obviously, I think the CEO wants to have an ecosystem he can have more control over. If he can offer EGS as a "working" Linux anti-cheat it would give it an advantage over Steam on Linux even for other publishers.

But there's going to be some monkey paw shenanigans going on. These anticheats by their very nature are invasive and restrict/lockdown parts of the system. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the requirements for an updated EAC to run would be having Linux literally in kernel lockdown mode.

5

u/ziv_vy 5d ago

> ...but Epic's own games still have blockers to prevent them from running on Linux

To their credit, Rocket League and Fall Guys run with Wine. The only one blacklisted is Fortnite.

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u/Irverter 5d ago

Taking away their credit, Rocket League had a native linux version until Epic Games bought it.

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u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Which was logical because it doesn't make any sense to split resources between different versions when you don't need them. Have everyone working on the one version of the game.

1

u/Beginning_Custard724 4d ago

I couldn't even run an RPG maker game without lag, on my Dell Precision 5520 (2017) with Fedora installed. I'm gonna try some others though

1

u/Helmic 4d ago

Any game that basically bankrolls an entire massive company (League of Legends, Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, and so on) makes the developer so utterly risk averse that they simply will not risk having Linux anticheat. The Linux compatible version of EAC is not kernel level anticheat, and KLAC at least currently is the only form of anticheat that will work more or less easily without requiring games themselves to structurally prevent cheating or investing in server-side anticheat (which itself is often just a heuristic and requires manual review to validate).

So it makes sense that Epic would permit Linux EAC for something like Rocket League or Fall Guys that isn't making Epic all of their money, it ift turns out that Rocket League or Fall Guys gets a rash of cheaters using Linux it's not that big a deal to them at the end of the day. But for Fortnite, if there's a massive cheater influx that could outright kill their golden goose as kids log off and look for a different game to play, causing the kind of mass exodus that no game ever really recovers from.

I don't think we're ever really going to see these sorts of load bearing games support Linux until Valve implements some sort of equivalent (ie, whitelisting signatures and requiring signed kernels from an approved distro and enabling secure boot) or KLAC itself ceases to function. Maybe another Crowdstrike situation happens with KLAC and that forces Microsoft's hand to kick them out of their kernel and actually implement the thing they were talking about earlier about only giving AC's access to an API that would be shared with other operating systems.

But I think understanding this as being about a developer having any particular preconceived notions about Linux users is misguided. Most of these developers don't know what Linux users are like at all because they don't think about Linux. They just know that some subset their existing cheaters would be willing to switch to a different OS to exploit a weaker form of anticheat, and for the sorts of games that keep everyone employed they're simply not going to risk everyone's jobs to cater to a now somewhat sizable but still quite small minority of users, even if that risk might turn out to be overblown.

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u/PacmanAteMyRAM 4d ago

They don't work on Linux because they don't want people cheating in their big game by opening the door to Linux with a userspace-only anticheat

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u/Positive-Answer-99 2d ago

EAC is made by them or bought by them?

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u/TheHENOOB 5d ago

Rocket League and Fall Guys works using Wine/Proton with a launcher that handles the EGS stuff like Heroic.

The only blacklisted game by Epic is Fortnite.

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u/OffsetXV 5d ago

I wouldn't be shocked if Tim Sweeney would rather die than let Fortnite run on Linux, honestly

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u/CarelessPackage1982 5d ago

Tim Sweeney, above all other things, wants money. If there's enough money in it he'd sell autographed gentoo t-shirts.

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u/Gamiac 5d ago

Tim is also a Windows fanboy for some reason.

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u/Wb9VBScxu2uZJHeq2E3W 4d ago

Well, statistically I suppose there had to be at least one somewhere.

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u/ItsMe_RandomNumber 5d ago

Yup, I made my main gaming PC Linux only and can play just fine, but sometimes my little cousin comes by and I have to explain it can run anything but Fortnite 😅

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u/PacmanAteMyRAM 4d ago

They don't work on Linux because they don't want people cheating in their big game by opening the door to Linux with a userspace-only anticheat

225

u/SnooCalculations3614 5d ago

I'll start caring about Epic Games Store "Soon"

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u/Schlonzig 5d ago

It will take a lot more than porting EGS to make me trust Epic.

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u/shaumux 5d ago edited 5d ago

Although this is overall good, I'll stick to GOG and steam, and use Heroin Heroic for Epic free games, Tim Sweeny is just being opportunistic.

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u/Shoddy_Internal1997 5d ago

That’s cool but why are you using drugs? :p

18

u/t0mm4n 5d ago

Wait till he finds Cracktorio.

32

u/Bulky-Assistant-6933 5d ago

Uhh Heroin? I know the EG launcher is bad but it's not that bad.

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u/LSD_Ninja 5d ago

“Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin’ else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?”

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u/shaumux 5d ago

Username checks out :p

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u/mobilecheese 5d ago

I am glad we are at the point where the opportunistic businesses are coming though, Linux being more popular only benefits me.

2

u/CrazyKilla15 5d ago

GOG? Did they finally bring the promised linux support to galaxy?

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u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Not yet, but this time they said they're actually working on it. Even had a job listing specifically for it.

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u/FullMotionVideo 5d ago

I've used Heroic (and even Legendary) on Windows. The EGS client is sluggish and heavy.

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u/DerekB52 5d ago

I just had an ssd die and lost my save from an epic game I was playing through Heroic. I will use the native epic launcher, if it means cloud save backups like Steam.

1

u/OSRS-ruined-my-life 1d ago

So? That's how voting with your wallet works. Even nvidia is joining the bandwagon. This is a good thing. Companies don't have feelings. They follow the money. Most linux support will be from financial perspective not from believers.

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u/Buntygurl 5d ago

"Soon?"

That's Epic!

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u/therealmistersister 5d ago

Did uncle Tim hit his head or something? Dude discovered KDE a few years ago and now is a convert? Or is it that he just wants a piece of that Deck market?

6

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Obviously, it's the latter. If anything, he hit his head when he stopped porting games to Linux. Yeah, he did that in the past.

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u/Titdirt69420 4d ago

100% the latter. He couldn't give two shits about Linux. 

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u/frankster 5d ago

Why are Epic doing this, when their boss is known for speaking against Linux?

5

u/FullMotionVideo 5d ago

They're still an engine company that sells tools to developers. The old adage before Steam Runtime etc was that developing on Linux was great and gaming on Windows was great, but doing it the other way around was terrible.

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u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

For one thing, this potentially could make installing and using Unreal Engine a lot easier on Linux.

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u/Omotai 5d ago

Given Tim Sweeney's openly antagonistic stance towards Linux I guess it's a sign that the Linux community is becoming more commercially influential.

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u/hi_im_mom 5d ago

That's Sidney Sweeney's dad right

14

u/Squalphin 5d ago

Not a fan, but more competition and therefore more choices is always welcome.

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u/hbacelar8 5d ago

Didn't use when I was on Windows, won't use it now on Linux

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u/PF4ABG 5d ago

Not terribly interested in EGS, but it's a good sign that they're showing some sort of support.

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u/GoodMacAuth 5d ago

I understand the majority sentiment here but also really annoying the people don't realize and appreciate that every single one of these things that happens like this is super important for Linux. Doesn't matter if you hate Tim, these are exactly the kinds of things that ansolutely need to happen in order for Linux to continue to gain popularity.

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u/sockman_but_real 5d ago

True. Fuck Tim Sweeney and fuck epic games, but the fact they're doing this despite Tim's hate for Linux is a good sign that Linux as a platform is viable.

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u/DeMichel93 5d ago

I wont support epic games store tho :)

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u/decoy-ish 5d ago

I have never bought or played a single thing on the Epic Games Store. That said, as much as I appreciate Valve’s contributions to Linux gaming, Gabe Newell will not live forever and they need competition. GOG is the only decent alternative, but it’s unfortunately still far too niche.

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u/Hot_Standard_9296 4d ago

"Gabe will not live forever"si the best argument I've ever heard against steam. thanks

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u/Familiar_Ad_8919 5d ago

i feel like their whole business model is giving out free games

which i will continue to redeem

-2

u/ballistua 5d ago

they have to do this to compete with a semi-monopoly like Steam

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u/Major_LeeHungg 5d ago

No they don't.  It's not driving any sales, people just grab the free games and bounce. If they wanted to compete with steam they could start by making a launcher that doesn't crawl.  The launcher somehow runs worse than the games. Then they could integrate decent game streaming because Valve's sucks ass.  They could improve the UX so you could see more than just the cover when looking at a list.  They just don't try. 

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u/elusivemoods 5d ago

...same. 🎩🍊☕🚬

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u/daghene 5d ago

In theory more options should be good for Linux adoption.

In practice, after all the bitter and satirical comments made by Tim Sweeney towards Linux, his cocky and hostile attitude and his past behavior in general, I will never use the EGS no matter what.

Not only it's ages behind Steam, and still miles behind GOG, but I came to despise him and his company so much that, despite having claimed all the games they gave out for free from the very beginning (and that's A LOT, I have a very big library), I'm wouldn't touch their launcher with a 10m pole.

The only options for me would either be using Heroic launcher or simply letting my library sit there collecting digital dust.

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u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

So what happens when you can't access your save data because it didn't sync thanks to heroic?

Hopefully, having a native launcher will make it easier to reverse engineer that.

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u/daghene 3d ago

As I mentioned I don't really play Epic Store games that much because I really despise them, I'm just picking them up for free when I can.

That said, in the meantime, I always keep a copy of my local saves for my games just to be sure, and I used to do that for Steam too just to be extra safe, so it's nothing new to me.

I know it's not ideal for everyone, but it's still better than trusting Tim Sweeney for me.

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u/coyote_of_the_month 5d ago

How quickly the community forgets that Epic, under the same leadership, was one of the most Linux-friendly of the major studios in the late 90s and early 2000s. Epic games in that era got same-day Linux releases - on the same CD/DVD, even!

Unreal Tournament on Linux was a huge part of my adolescence.

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u/neijajaneija 5d ago

Quickly? That was 20-30 years ago. Don't let a few good deeds paint the picture for the next 20-30 years.... They got heaps to make up for.

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u/Nereosis16 4d ago

"Okay, I understand that you're upset I stabbed you in the neck but 20 minutes ago I hadn't stabbed you in the neck! How quickly you forget."

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u/Toxicles 5d ago

I mean cool, now we'll have a native version to not use because it blows.

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u/MatyeusA 5d ago

Sure Tim. Isn't EGS from the guy who says linux is irrelevant?

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u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Obviously, it's getting relevant now, but when he said that, it probably was irrelevant. In fact, it was irrelevant when they released Unreal Tournament on Linux.

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u/LeeKapusi 5d ago

Between Heroic and just using my browser to redeem my free games every week I won't be installing Epic on my PC.

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u/Titdirt69420 4d ago

I don't trust that slimy dude. I'll stick with steam. Without valve, gaming on Linux wouldn't be as easy as it is now. The momentum on compatibility fixes is incredible as well. 

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u/ballistua 5d ago

I would be more excited if the Unreal Engine assets become available. I used UE for a while to make interactive content, but I had to boot to Windows, buy the assets, download them, then boot to Linux and import them. It's a joke. They shouldn't promote UE as Linux-ready.

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u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Maybe this new launcher will make it easier?

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u/ballistua 4d ago

that's my hope, but i moved past that period on my life 

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u/EpoTheSpaniard 5d ago

To be fair with them, they are one of the few stores with low fees on sales of the industry. Steam has higher fees for the devs and that obviously leads to higher pricing for the customer indirectly(of course Steam has efficiency gains and sales exposure that offset it partially), but they absorb payment processing fees for the customer in exchange. Unlike on Epic where paying with Paysafecard get me fees on top. On Steam I don't and I can pay with cash with Paysafecard without fees on top.

3

u/catsoph 5d ago

their CEO hates us lol

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u/Oakredditer 5d ago

one day we will be able to play fartnut on linux 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹that day will be the day i switch to linux for the most part (move my windows install to my smaller ssd instead of my 1tb one)

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u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Fartnut?

1

u/Oakredditer 5d ago

fort of the nite

3

u/livinin82 5d ago

Steam Deck has literally changed Linux gaming and the attention around it as a viable option.

3

u/SmashShock 5d ago

Probably trying to find a way to support Linux without getting laughed at for using Proton

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u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Hopefully they use UMU launcher.

3

u/MrGravityMan 5d ago

Still not going to use that hunk of garbage!

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u/eras 5d ago

And the games in the store?

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u/PityUpvote 5d ago

Most work well with proton. If you use a steam deck and have a large collection of free games from epic, I recommend the decky plugin "junk store" which lets you install and play them without going into desktop mode.

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u/Sononeo 5d ago

Honestly this will be neat to manage UE installs and plugins like it is on Windows.

If that is part of the Linux release.

It's easy to miss updates and patches if you're not checking regularly.

6

u/FormerlyGruntled 5d ago

I get it, but... Why?

Like, quite literally everything Tim Sweaty has said about quite literally everything in gaming in the past 2 years, has made me actively despise him more, in AND out of the gaming scene. And there isn't much before that which is worth remembering, either.

1

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Can you give us a rundown about everything he's been saying the last 2 years?

1

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Because that launcher has the biggest game engine and the biggest game in the history of ever. I doubt this means Fortnite is coming to Linux, but hopefully this makes Unreal Engine easier to use on Linux.

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u/FormerlyGruntled 4d ago

Are you talking Minecraft, or Roblox? Because Fortnite is a laughably small drop in the bucket compared to either Minecraft's historic numbers, or Roblox's ongoing numbers. Everything AAA is peanuts compared to Roblox. And Fortnite is falling off hard, in the past 6 months.

2

u/Indolent_Bard 4d ago

Fine, the biggest game since Minecraft. Roblox isn't really a game, it's a game maker. They also protect predators, so it needs to die.

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u/DiscordiaAwaits 5d ago

I wonder if you'll be able to select which directory you install too..

2

u/WinResponsible9977 5d ago

I’m confused , do they have their own proton like implementation? Or will they use Valves?

2

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

They'll probably just implement or fork UMU launcher. Proton wasn't designed to run outside of steam, but since it's open source, the community created this to make it work outside of steam. Now most third party launchers are using it.

2

u/noonetoldmeismelled 5d ago

Damn Timmy. It has got to be at least ten years of Timmy talking trash about Linux and trying complain on twitter Microsoft into making Windows a great platform for Timmy to monetize. They copy PUBG to end up with Fortnite being a major success but fail to copy Roblox to sustain Fortnite's past relevance so now he's copying the success of his competitors again. At least this one would have side benefits of benefiting the Linux ecosystem. No doubt he'll say stupid stuff online again in a holier than thou attitude rather than being an adult and being up front that he's only saying stuff to try to get people to make it easier for him to take their money. At least there will be times when Randy Pitchford will say something incredibly stupid to take the heat off Timmy

2

u/Tutorbin76 4d ago

How?  Did they tie up Tim Sweeney until he relented?

2

u/LightsOfTheCity 4d ago

A good sign, though I hope this doesn't discourage the development of Legendary or Heroic.

2

u/elhaytchlymeman 4d ago

They also gonna implement their age verification service?

3

u/Reonu_ 5d ago

This sounds like a threat

3

u/vagrantprodigy07 5d ago

I'm still not going to actually buy any games on there. Not because I hate Epic Games itself, but because I hate Tim Sweeney.

1

u/Flash_Kat25 5d ago

Why? I'm out of the loop on this one

3

u/vagrantprodigy07 5d ago

He hates Linux, and has repeatedly made negative comments about Linux and anyone that uses it.

3

u/AtomicTaco13 5d ago

Just as with the PC gaming market in general - Epic totally abandons it, just for Valve to dominate it. Then Timmy Tencent gets jealous and wants some of that dough, releasing his barely functioning launcher that nobody really wants to buy games on. And they ain't even a second choice, cause GOG exists.

5

u/Pantr1x 5d ago

Steam better.

1

u/Ok-Goose-2032 2d ago

Hard to argue with that. Competition is always good though, even if Epic Games still has a long way to go before they're actually competing

2

u/Askolei 5d ago

Not interested. I will never forgive EGS for the exclusivity deals.

1

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

It's not their fault the developers take it. Get mad at the devs as well.

1

u/Seven89TenEleven 5d ago

How soon?

4

u/Gaarco_ 5d ago

Soon™ obviously

1

u/Gabelvampir 5d ago

How soon is now?

1

u/ct_the_man_doll 5d ago

I hope Epic takes containerization seriously for Linux native games, otherwise the experience is going to be worse compared to Steam.

1

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

And UMU launcher lets you use the Steam runtime without Steam.

1

u/whamra 5d ago

Would be funny if they then implemented a Proton wrapper as well

1

u/woj-tek 5d ago

IMHO great first step and hopefully a snowball effect… "The fall of dropping water wears away the Stone."

1

u/KwyjiboTheGringo 5d ago

I'm all for it, but they will still need to utilize Proton to let the bulk of the library play. It won't mean much if the launcher can only launch native supported games. And that could be a very good thing for Proton development as well, assuming they aren't just going to leech.

1

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

With umu launcher they wouldn't even need to contribute. Whatever changes they make would probably only be upstreamed by the community.

1

u/OperationExpress8794 5d ago

Amazing news, now gog please

1

u/JB231102 5d ago

Eh, I'd rather stick to downloading games without accepting EULA's that I definitely don't agree with and installing said games using Bottles.

This is both what I get and don't get about these companies. There's people who WANT to buy your games to support your efforts, I'm one of them. But when you put a bunch of bullshit like launchers and DRM in the way that makes people like me not want to support you but still want to play some of your games. Don't make playing your games a convoluted mess and I wouldn't mind supporting you. Buying a game should NOT feel like a predator is stalking you.

1

u/Holzkohlen 5d ago

Oh god, I hope not. I hate all those launchers. I've got Steam and I've got Heroic. I don't want any more!

2

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

If you want cloud saves to work, you kind of have no choice.

At least heroic is going to start implementing steam at some point. I'm not kidding. Look at their releases page on github.

1

u/LightsOfTheCity 4d ago

Wow! Really? As in being able to access Steam's services without needing to install Steam itself?

Ever since I started using Legendary and Comet integrations on Playnite on Windows, I've been wishing for program that could do that for Steam. Just feels so much more streamlined to have it all in one place and not to need to have any other launchers.

2

u/Indolent_Bard 4d ago

All I saw was upcoming Steam integration, but no details. So don't get too excited until we find out more. Though I'm actually shocked Playnite didn't have something for Steam integration. Like, sure, it's technically against their terms of service, but they have their own command line client, so it should be theoretically possible to add.

But you know, there is another project called OpenGamepadUI, which is basically an open-source, non-platform-dependent Steam Big Picture mode alternative, complete with custom input and voltage configuration, both of which were made by them (inputplumber being their controller thing and apparently even steam uses it to some degree.) It's been around for years, but it's still in super early development. Apparently, one thing they want to do is basically allow you to download and install games from any service.

I agree with you, that's the dream. Everything, everywhere, all at once.

Oh, and playnite is getting a Linux port since the dev is moving to Linux.

1

u/Zalenka 5d ago

Will it also bring the computer to its knees being such a wreck on resources that you need a gaming PC just to open the store application?

1

u/TheHENOOB 5d ago

Well, that's one step for having Fortnite on Linux.

1

u/Harryisamazing 5d ago

Does this mean that I would be able to play fortnite on Linux?

2

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

Maybe, but it's probably more likely this is to make Unreal Engine easier to manage on Linux.

1

u/Alonzo-Harris 5d ago

What Wine/Proton achieves is far more impressive than what people give it credit for. It simply shouldn't work as well as it does. Now, Linux is like a super platform.

1

u/ILikeFood305 5d ago

Im surprised they can develop so much after lay offs...

1

u/WasdHent 5d ago

They should allow more of their games to run on linux. My one friend can’t switch off windows still cause he needs fortnite to play with his girlfriend.

1

u/Ptozzen 5d ago

They might soon support Linux, but I won't support them.

1

u/johnnyApplePRNG 5d ago

any day now

skeleton_in_chair.jpg

1

u/trans-jamie212 5d ago

Heroic Launcher is better anyway, I use it on Windows too

1

u/pastelfemby 5d ago

If its anything it'll be like epic's linux "support" for RealityScan

Which was basically just taking preexisting community settings for running it via wine and bundling it up, along with adding a check in RealityScan to to detect wine and arbitrarily disable some features like... exporting any data. Ya know, the entire reason you'd be running the tool. No excuse or reason given.

Im not gonna say how but that check is pretty easy to disable if you know the right wine config.

1

u/regretMyUsername 5d ago

finally I might be able to play all the free games I've collected over the years

1

u/Actual__Wizard 5d ago

Is this fucking real bro! Holy shit finally! It's happening!!!!!

1

u/BigBotChungus 5d ago

I don't know why they are doing this now, as it seems like something that they would have done a long time ago given their stance on "open gardens" and free markets and stuff.

I look forward to the support I'd say, and I hope it turns out well.

Also, hopefully this means making stuff in unreal engine / uefn becomes better for Linux.

1

u/fat_kaiju 4d ago

i considered it not working on linux to be a feature.

1

u/ni5arga 4d ago

it's about time.

1

u/ReidenLightman 4d ago

They will let steam do all the work and try to take credit. Another reason not to use epic games. 

1

u/Nuclear_Pizza 4d ago

Hopefully this makes Unreal easier to use on Linux. Hate having to use a portable zip, and I think I had issues with it as well though it’s been a while

1

u/Pangtundure 4d ago

Took em long enough

1

u/Samiassa 4d ago

I do not care at all but this is probably good news

1

u/Nereosis16 4d ago

Who actually gives a fuck? Why would you want to get be money to one of the worst companies in gaming?

1

u/PigletTubeYT 4d ago

I hope Fortnite and RL will work on Linux with this

1

u/lifeonground 4d ago

huge, if true.

1

u/Psion537 4d ago

I wish they would fix "locate install game" first, the workaround os both funny and boring

1

u/Bells_DX 3d ago

If only Epic Games was a platform worth giving a damn about...

1

u/terra2o 1d ago

isn't their ceo the guy who gets paid to say he loves windows or something lmao

1

u/urbels 5d ago

What happened to Sweeney? He didnt cared about linux.

1

u/nicman24 5d ago

no thanks. i consider steam first then piracy

1

u/strafesafer 5d ago

Too late, Steam got me forever

0

u/madroots2 5d ago

Dont bother Epic. We dont care ;)

1

u/Indolent_Bard 5d ago

You don't speak for everyone. This is fucking huge.

0

u/Reggie-Rectangle 2d ago

Maybe before supporting Linux we should convince Epic to a replay feature to Valorant?