Epic previews rebuilt Games Launcher with Linux support, says Fortnite will follow

Left · 1Epic Games released a preview of a new Epic Games Launcher on 14 October 2026. It is available on Windows, Mac and, for the first time, Linux, and the old version stays available. 1 2 Left · 1Epic said it plans to bring Fortnite to Linux through the launcher, but the game is not available there yet and the company has no timeline, according to Epic engineering director Rick Deist. 2 Left · 1Cheating concerns are a main reason Fortnite has not been on Linux. Epic's Easy Anti-Cheat supports Linux, but Fortnite does not use it there, and in February 2022 CEO Tim Sweeney said Epic lacked confidence it could combat cheating at scale across many kernel configurations. 2

Left · 1Epic is now rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat for Linux as "EAC Linux v2", working with distro maintainers on security requirements. It plans to pilot it in Fortnite first, launch Fortnite once a critical mass of distro maintainers is on board, and make the improvements available to other developers. 2 Left · 1Epic is "investigating" making Fortnite compatible with Valve's SteamOS but does not plan to put it on the Steam store, according to Epic Games Store VP and GM Martin Keely. Epic also said the Steam Deck lacks features its EAC v2 needs, and that it is talking with Valve. 2 Left · 1Epic's blog post says the launcher was "vibe coded" and is "way faster and more responsive" than the current one, with a new look. Keely said AI agents wrote and reviewed all of the code, but the development team managed and supervised the process. He said AI helped replicate the existing launcher's core functionality and made the Linux version possible. 1

Left · 1Ars Technica said its own testing found the new launcher goes from a cold start to the store page a few seconds faster than Steam. It called Epic's claimed 0.06-second advantage in restoring from the system tray to the Library unnoticeable. 3 Left · 2Epic warns the preview "will have some bugs" and is "light on features", since some social features and account management options have not been carried over. It adds a Recent Games list and a centralised downloads hub, and Epic says it is working toward feature parity. It has no firm date for a full switch and will move everyone over once the update is stable. 3 1 Left · 2The release follows an AI push at Epic. On Monday Sweeney announced a "huge pivot underway" to retool developers for "maximum AI acceleration", and Bloomberg reported that a director on an unannounced Disney title told staff there would be "No more hand-written code." Keely said the launcher team has not adopted that model, though its approach is "on the same train". Epic laid off more than 1,000 staff in March, and Sweeney said then that the layoffs were not related to AI. 1 3

Left · 1Epic first announced a ground-up "storefront rearchitecture" and a "Launcher V2 private Beta" at Unreal Fest in June, promising "5x faster cold start" times. 3