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
I’m definitely not an expert, but it looks like the only software that they’re looking to implement above and beyond what comes with your distro is that systemd module, so I think that anti-cheat hook is what we’ll have to look out for. It ought to be pretty obvious when it’s about to happen, since I think that will be the only time you install a game from a game launcher and get prompted for an admin password for installation.
Requiring a signed kernel+modules plus TPM and Secure Boot attestation is another problem, especially if EAC limits you to approved signing keys since self-signed keys would still allow you to modify the system how you want.
TPM alone is a non-starter. Loads of people with old PCs moved to Linux in recent years due to Windows 11 requiring a TPM 2.0 chip, and now is hardly the best time to expect people to upgrade their hardware.
That and the risk of gaming distributions including Epic’s crap by default like they do for Steam, though I doubt any distro worth its salt would do so.
But then they’re no worse off whether on Linux or not. I expect my next PC will have TPM2 enabled by default and will play nicely with everything I use, but I have no intention of using kernel level anti-cheat regardless. If you do want that, and there are people who do, then it’s the same thing on Windows except you can use an OS that isn’t utter garbage to daily drive.