Later this month, Valve is set to begin distributing the Steam Deck, a highly-anticipated handheld gaming PC. While there will be a ton of games available to play when users get their hands on this device, one popular title will be noticeably absent.
For now, Valve’s Steam Deck will not be able to play Fortnite due to its lack of anti-cheat. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney shared in response to a fan question the company has no plans to change Fortnite and its current anti-cheats. Given its Linux operating system, Sweeney doesn’t have complete confidence that Epic would be able to effectively combat cheating if it released the game in its current form on the Steam Deck.
The silver lining here is that other Epic Games titles will be available on the device with the standard Easy Anti-Cheat protection. Despite Sweeney’s continued responses explaining why Fortnite would not be available on the Steam Deck, some fans of the game continue to claim the decision is “out of spite for Steam.”
For the time being, those picking up a Steam Deck will have to enjoy the remainder of its library of titles and stick to playing Fortnite on their regular PC, console, or mobile device.
