The Steam Deck can play titles from any genre. From narrative-driven action romps to gut-wrenching horror games, Valve’s freshmen handheld outing has proven quite versatile outside of competitive gaming. While some competitive titles like Apex Legends have since found their way to being playable, others haven’t been so lucky.
Epic Games’ Fortnite is one of the unlucky games in this case. Despite Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye both being supported by the Steam Deck, Epic Games won’t be bringing Fortnite over to the Steam Deck for the foreseeable future, according to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney.
“Fortnite no, but there’s a big effort underway to maximize Easy Anti Cheat compatibility with Steam Deck,” Sweeney said in a Twitter reply after being asked whether Fortnite and Easy Anti-Cheat would be compatible with Steam Deck.
When pressed on why Fortnite wouldn’t be making it to the Steam Deck, Sweeney provided a straightforward answer.
“We don’t have confidence that we’d be able to combat cheating at scale under a wide array of kernel configurations including custom ones,” said Sweeney.
Sweeney’s statements serve to drown out expectations. There’s likely no way fans will see Fortnite on the Steam Deck any time soon, considering the matter-of-factness of Sweeney’s statements. Still, there’s always hope for improvement. It’s just not worth holding your breath for.
To check up on the rest of your game library’s compatibility, visit the Steam Deck Verified games list or the Great on Deck page. If you’re looking to get things done in one move, try using the CheckMyDeck tool along with this guide to help you through the process.
