SteamOS is now officially on the list of Linux distributions Epic Games plans to support with its new Epic Games Launcher. In a statement to GamingOnLinux, Epic communications director Jake Jones said the launcher is still in Preview, and that Epic plans to "support as many Linux distributions as possible, including Fedora, SteamOS, Cachy, Omarchy, and more." It seems to be the first time Epic has explicitly named SteamOS, which runs on the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. For now, the Preview only ships as a.deb package for Debian and Ubuntu, though Epic says it is testing other packaging formats and will bring back the AppImage version this month. Epic first said a native Linux launcher was coming back in August, and the Preview arrived on October 14.

For Steam Deck owners, official support could mean an easier way into their Epic libraries without third-party tools like the Heroic Games Launcher. However, Epic hasn't said how the launcher will work in SteamOS's Game Mode, and Windows games will still need a compatibility layer. In the current Preview, the launcher handles that by downloading GE-Proton. As for Fortnite, Epic plans to bring it to Linux through the new launcher once EAC Linux v2 is ready, but the new anti-cheat relies on a signed kernel, Secure Boot, and several other security features. Back in October, Epic said the Steam Deck doesn't currently support what EAC v2 needs, and that it is talking with Valve about it. It looks like Steam Deck owners will get the launcher well before they get Fortnite.

Shortly after the official Fedora 45 launch, Bazzite 45 has launched, with a rebase to Fedora 45, Gnome 51.1, and KDE Plasma 6.8.2. The new Bazzite version lists updated OGC Linux kernels—7.2.15 for AMD and Intel, and 6.18.60 for NVIDIA users—and additional hardware support, including for the Acer Predator Atlas 8 and ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X20, but also for more peripherals, including the Logitech TrueForce racing wheel hardware. The Mesa driver version has also been updated to 26.2.6, InputPlumber has been updated, and CoolerController has been moved to the official docker container, while XWaylandVideoBridge has been removed in the name of stability and squashing KDE bugs. The rest of the actual updates are minor back-end changes, save one.

As per the announcement post on the Universal Blue Discourse page, as of Bazzite 45, Bazzite has become accepted by Epic Games as a signing key provider, and the development team behind Bazzite has added a Linux EAC V2 readiness checker to Bazzite 45. The checker automatically updates the latest Linux EAC V2 requirements and compares the requirements to the current kernel and BIOS configurations—specifically kernel and module signing, Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, measured boot, IOMMU, kernel lockdown, kexec, and BPF LSM. If there are any incompatibilities, the user will be notified by the readiness checker.

Epic Games recently promised expanded Linux support for Easy Anti-Cheat, outlining a new set of standards and native Linux security features that would need to be adopted by Linux distribution developers who wanted gamers to be able to access EAC Linux v2 games. As is par for the course for the distribution, CachyOS has come out swinging as one of the first, if not the first, Linux distribution to explicitly announce support for EAC Linux v2.

The announcement comes by way of a discussion on CachyOS's GitHub. Although its developers have yet to fully implement the new features, CachyOS's maintainers and developers are quick to note that the linux-cachyos-eac kernel will be a fully optional feature for the desktop environment, and that it will be opt-in. That's an important point, because some of the features required for EAC Linux v2 have been quite controversial in Linux gaming circles.

Despite prior harsh criticism from the company's CEO, Tim Sweeney, it seems as though Epic Games may finally be changing its tone on Linux gaming. According to a recent job posting on the Epic Games site, the game studio is currently looking to hire a security engineer with "deep knowledge of Linux and Windows OS internals." The engineer will work on Epic Online Services, more specifically, Epic is looking for a Senior Game Security Engineer for its anti-cheat systems to work on "not only our titles but a wide variety of games from around the world" and to "champion Linux anti-cheat capabilities for Epic." All of this is to say that Epic Games is looking to expand Linux support for Easy Anti-Cheat, and the job description includes mentions of reverse engineering common cheats and malicious software and working with external game developers on EAC implementations based on data analysis.

It's worth noting that EAC already has a Linux compatibility mode, although it appears to simply deactivate the kernel-level anti-cheat capabilities, since that's the main component of EAC that is incompatible with Linux. Previously, the head of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, has been skeptical about supporting Linux in EAC, despite eventually implementing a Linux mode after the launch of the Steam Deck. Notably, however, Epic's flagship game, Fortnite, still does not support Linux, despite the user-space EAC implementation other games use. Recently, there appear to also have been changes in Fortnite's player base and playing habits that resulted in a round of layoffs that have affected over 1,000 workers at the company, so it would not be a surprise to see Epic Games switch up its strategy surrounding Fortnite and EAC in response to the Fortnite downturn.

Rocket League, the popular competitive vehicular soccer game, will soon be getting an anti-cheat implementation, nearly a decade after its original launch. Psyonix announced on the game's official X account that it would be implementing Easy Anti-Cheat in Rocket League in an April update. The justifications for anti-cheat is to prevent DDoS attacks, improve bot detection, and more effectively ban cheaters in games. The announcement comes with a few caveats, though—specifically relating to how the addition of anti-cheat will affect competitive gameplay, offline LAN multiplayer, and gaming on Linux.

Unlike many high-profile EAC implementations, Rocket League will maintain compatibility with the Valve Steam Deck, and by extension other Linux gaming PCs and the upcoming Steam Machine via the Proton compatibility layer. Players will be able to disable EAC for offline play, in cases like local LAN multiplayer, or split-screen multiplayer. Additionally, the EAC implementation will eventually allow players in custom tournaments to run tournament-specific mods, and players will be able to run custom community content with EAC enabled at launch. The announcement also mentions "custom mod-inspired content" coming to Rocket League in the same April update.