- Fortnite finally runs on Windows on Arm laptops as the game’s anti-cheat tool (EAC) is now compatible with the architecture
- The game runs well on these Snapdragon X chips, too, going by reports
- This move was facilitated by a new Epic Online Services SDK, and other EAC games should work on Arm soon
It’s finally happened – you can now play Fortnite on a Windows 11 laptop with an Arm processor.
Windows Latest reports that Epic has made good on its promise to get Fortnite’s anti-cheat tool working with Windows on Arm machines, those super-slim Copilot+ laptops with Snapdragon X chips which use a different architecture compared to traditional Windows 11 laptops.
What’s the problem with that? Well, the Arm architecture being different to 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).
That translation layer exacts a performance overhead, as you might guess, but more problematically certain tech just doesn’t work on Arm systems at all, notably 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, as they all use some kind of anti-cheat utility.
As of version 38.00 of Fortnite, the shooter now works on Arm PCs as the Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) system is now natively supported, although the change wasn’t documented in the release notes, oddly.
The game has been verified as running fine on Snapdragon X laptops, though, by Windows Latest and also other reports on Reddit. All of which agree that Fortnite runs nice and smoothly, even on the lower-end Snapdragon chips.
Analysis: other online games will hopefully follow soon
It’s good to see Fortnite finally up and running on Arm devices, and performing well considering that the game is emulated. (There’s native support for EAC now, but not for the game itself, which works via Prism – and the translation layer does a good job here by all accounts).
EAC compatibility was provided in the Epic Online Services SDK released back in August, but it’s still up to game developers to implement that support in their respective titles – it took Epic a few months to get this in Fortnite itself, of course. Other EAC games include Apex Legends and Elden Ring, so hopefully we might see those running on Snapdragon X laptops before too long.
Outside of EAC, Arm CPU support will be a thornier issue, and cheating prevention systems such as Riot Vanguard (Valorant) and BattlEye (which is part of PUBG’s armory of anti-cheat tech, as well as Rainbow Six Siege and many other shooters) will need their own solutions – which may or may not be forthcoming. Given that Arm isn’t exactly a pressing issue for many developers, we could be waiting a long while – maybe forever if you’re being pessimistic (and the same is true of getting Linux support for these anti-cheat tools, too, for SteamOS and handheld owners).
It’s worth noting that Microsoft also applied improvements to Prism recently to ensure more games run on Snapdragon X chips – resolving a problem tied in with AVX and AVX2 extensions – so gaming with Windows on Arm has come on a long way in the past month.
That’s good news because these Copilot+ laptops are highly portable devices with impressive battery chops, so to be able to engage in some meaningful gaming while on the go is a definite boon.
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