Epic Games is looking to hire new employees specifically to improve the use of Easy Anti-Cheat on Linux.
While Linux adoption is currently higher than its ever been, despite some recent drops, the operating system still suffers from a lack of anti-cheat support. Despite the modern push for more Linux support, which has resulted in full ports of games like Baldur’s Gate 3, games with some anti-cheat solutions cannot work on the OS.
In the past, Valve has claimed that fan support of hardware such as the Steam Deck and Steam Machine could push studios to add Linux support to their anti-cheat solutions. Now, it seems that Epic Games is finally starting to tackle Linux support for games running its Easy Anti-Cheat solution.
In a recent job listing for Senior Game Security Engineer. Epic specifically called for an employee to “champion Linux anti-cheat capabilities for Epic”. The job listing asks for an employee with “deep knowledge of Linux and Windows OS internals” and “familiarity with development and security practices on Linux and Windows”.
This would suggest for additional support for Linux could be coming for Epic’s anti-cheat solution, although it does not guarantee it. Nevertheless, it does seem that better support for Linux is seemingly becoming a priority within Epic Games which would allow games like Fortnite to target even more players.
In a report by The Verge back in 2023, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney explained that the lack of support for Fortnite on handhelds like the Steam Deck came down to “the Linux problem”. While admitting that “Valve has done an amazing job” on its handheld, the Epic CEO explained it would only make sense to support Linux if the OS managed to “get to tens of millions of users”.
According to a report by ZDNet, Linux now has over 6% of the desktop market, and it’s also making strides in the gaming space as well. Additionally, gaming-focused Linux distro Bazzite OS has become incredibly popular with the team nowshifting a petabyte of ISOs in a month.
With all this said, there is no official timeline on any updates to Epic’s anti-cheat solution to support Linux. However, considering the sheer breadth of Easy Anti-Cheat’s adoption in modern gaming, official Linux support would be a major win for gamers on the open-source OS platform.
