Epic Games Store is going to support Linux 'soon' — and that's great news for Steam Deck owners | Tech Radar
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Epic Games Store is going to support Linux 'soon' — and that's great news for Steam Deck owners
Ge Force Now app has officially debuted for Linux distros too
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Er det for tidlig å feire, eller kan snart alle kjøpe seg et skjermkort? (Image credit: Shutterstock / Gorodenkoff)
This is happening just as Nvidia's Ge Force Now streaming app came out of beta and officially launched on Linux
This year is getting better and better for Linux gamers, as GOG is also porting its Galaxy client over too
Epic will be making a native version of its launcher for Linux, and on top of that, Nvidia's Ge Force Now app for Linux is also official, having emerged from beta.
The delivery of the Epic Games Store for Linux will be a big win for Steam Deck owners, and other Linux gamers who want to access Epic's gaming platform with no fuss, and as Steam Deck HQ reports (via Video Cardz), that native incarnation is coming.
An Epic employee (@onepercentnachos) was questioned on this subject at an AMA ('ask me anything' session) on the Discord server for the Epic Games Store community. They replied that a native version of the store is coming "soon" albeit not in the next preview build. The staffer noted that "we need to do more than simply have a build of the launcher that can run natively on Linux".
Nvidia also just announced that the Linux app for its streaming service, Ge Force Now, is no longer a beta. The officially released full version of the app "focuses on performance, stability and polish while continuing to support Ubuntu 24.04 and later", we're told.
And while it's not related to gaming, Open AI's release of a Chat GPT app for Linux is another milestone for the platform. As Tech Crunch reports, the Linux app for Chat GPT is still a preview, but it gives users a native app experience for a number of different distros. Those include Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04 LTS, Debian 13, as well as Fedora 43 and 44.
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Open AI said: "Linux has been one of the most-requested platforms for the desktop app, and this launch extends Chat GPT and Codex across every major desktop operating system."
Analysis: a rosier future for Linux gamers — but Fortnite remains a bone of contention
The Epic Games Store arriving natively is great news for gamers running Linux — including Steam OS — as it means a much more convenient way of playing games from the store, as opposed to the current situation with fudging and workarounds (using a third-party app such as the Heroic Games Launcher).
It's worth noting that the distros which will be supported remain unconfirmed, but presumably the gaming-focused Steam OS will be one of them. Also, there will still be limitations even with this native implementation, notably games with anti-cheat. Indeed, Epic's own Fortnite doesn't work on Linux (and that's down to Epic actively blocking the game from running due to issues around cheating, which remains a source of controversy).
Given the apparent changing attitude here with its launcher being ported over, maybe Epic will reverse course on Fortnite eventually. Some gamers on Reddit are highly skeptical about that possibility though, and as one doubting Redditor put it: "I wouldn't hold my breath."
Another went just a touch further than that, observing: "I wouldn't be shocked if Tim Sweeney [Epic's CEO] would rather die than let Fortnite run on Linux, honestly."
At any rate, the Fortnite controversy aside, with GOG also working on a native Linux spin on its Galaxy client, there are some considerable strides being taken for gamers – and Nvidia's Ge Force Now becoming official for Linux is another useful step forward to boot.
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for Tech Radar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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