Epic Will Not Support Fortnite on Steam Deck's System, Cites Cheating Concerns

Its no secret that Epic Games has a powerful grudge against the competition, enough to handicap themselves if need be. No, this isnt about Apple, but Steam. Currently, there are no plans to support the hot new mobile gaming device, the Steam Deck.

According to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, the company does not plan on making Fortnite compatible with Proton (something the Steam Deck uses). When asked about Proton support on Twitter, he gave the following response.

Fortnite no, but there's a big effort underway to maximize Easy Anti Cheat compatibility with Steam Deck.

For those unfamiliar, Proton is a software system that allows for Windows PC games to run on Linux operating systems. The Steam Deck, A recently revealed handheld gaming option by Valve, uses Proton to run its games.

When asked why they wont, Sweeney stated that it was because of a lack of ability to combat cheating when presented with the vast Kernal configurations possible through the Proton.

In all fairness, this is a pretty valid reason to not want to push for a game on a platform, especially one the size of Fortnite. Even so, that didnt stop others from pressing about this being a feud between Epic and Steam, a claim that Sweeney discredited.

Epic would be happy to put Fortnite on Steam. We wouldn't be happy to give Steam 20-30 percent of its revenue for the privilege.

This is more in line with what Epic has been about the last handful of years. Theyve pushed hard with almost every platform about allowing Epic and Fortnite to not have to pay the industry standard of 30% to publish on their platforms. Their stubborn behavior about this topic has led to the creation of their own platform, a large wave of exclusivity buyouts by the company, and a multi-year legal battle against Apple.

All in all, maybe Epic/Sweeney has a valid reason for not supporting Fortnite on the Steam Deck. But with their dishonest history and tendency to hold a grudge, we have a hard time knowing for sure.