- Fortnite finally works on Windows on Arm laptops as the game’s anti-cheat tool (EAC) is now compatible with the architecture
- The game also runs well on these Snapdragon X chips, according to reports
- This move was made easier by a new Epic Online Services SDK, and more EAC games should work on Arm soon.
It’s finally here – you can now play Fortnite on a Windows 11 laptop with an Arm processor.
Windows Latest reports that Epic has kept its promise to get Fortnite anti-cheat tool that works with Windows on Arm machines, these ultra-thin Copilot+ laptops with Snapdragon X chips that use a different architecture than traditional Windows 11 laptops.
What’s wrong with that? Well, the Arm architecture being different from x86 processors (from AMD and Intel) means that emulation (specifically a translation layer called Prism) is required to run apps and games on Snapdragon X laptops, if they aren’t natively coded for Arm (and many aren’t, of course).
This translation layer causes a performance overhead, as you might guess, but even more problematic, some technologies simply don’t work at all on Arm systems, including anti-cheat tools in the gaming world. Hence online games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, Valorant, Apex Legends and so on won’t work on a Snapdragon X device, because they all use some sort of anti-cheat utility.
From version 38.00 of FortniteThe shooter now works on Arm PCs as the Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) system is now supported natively, although the change was not documented in the release notes, oddly enough.
However, the game has been verified to run fine on Snapdragon X laptops, by Windows Latest and also other reports on Reddit. Who all agree that Fortnite runs nice and smoothly even on low-end Snapdragon chips.
Analysis: More online games will hopefully follow soon
It’s good to see Fortnite finally up and running on Arm devices, and works well considering the game’s emulation. (There is now native support for EAC, but not for the game itself, which works through Prism – and the translation layer does a good job here in all respects).
EAC compatibility was provided in the Epic Online Services SDK released in August, but it’s still up to game developers to implement this support in their respective titles – it took Epic a few months to integrate it. Fortnite himself, of course. Other EAC games include Apex Legends And Ancient Ringso hopefully we’ll be able to see those running on Snapdragon X laptops before too long.
Outside of EAC, Arm CPU support will be a thornier issue, and cheat prevention systems such as Riot Vanguard (Valorant) and BattlEye (part of PUBG arsenal of anti-cheat technologies, as well as Rainbow Six Headquarters and many other shooters) will need their own solutions – which may or may not be offered. Since Arm isn’t really a pressing issue for many developers, we could be waiting a long time – maybe forever if you’re pessimistic (and the same goes for getting Linux support for these anti-cheat tools, for SteamOS and handheld owners).
It’s worth noting that Microsoft also recently made improvements to Prism to ensure more games run on Snapdragon
This is good news because these Copilot+ laptops are highly portable devices with an impressive battery, so being able to play meaningful games on the go is a real boon.
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