- Epic Games has announced a partnership with Qualcomm
- It will see light anti-seaweed to be available for windows on arm
- In addition to Fortnite, this means the potential for hundreds of games to be played
Epic Games has announced a new partnership with Qualcomm to support light anti-cheat for its arm-based Snapdragon processors. This means that Fortnite will finally be available on Copilot+ PC -Bearing computers that use them as the Snapdragon X family for the first time (which are some of the best laptops we have recently tested).
In a press release, Epic Games explained that it is working with Qualcomm Technologies to bring Epic Online Service’s Anti-Cheat to Windows on the arm used by laptops such as the excellent Surface Laptop. This decision was due to how Windows 11 on the arm has “transformed the PC landscape” with the company’s processors representing a “fast growing segment of the PC game market”.
There are some different architectural differences between X64 (64-bit) and arm, the latter being far less compatible with most of the software, especially games. Windows on the arm has come a long way in the past year, but there is still plenty to improve. “Due to the way anti-cheat software works with X64 features, additional tools for compatibility with these devices are required.”
Of crucial importance, the test and implementation of light anti-cheat on the arm could open the door to the many other games that use the software for online games, with compatibility spread over the epic gaming store (and beyond). “In addition to releasing Windows on Snapdragon Anti-Cheat Support to Fortnite, we will bring this support to developers through an EPIC Online Services SDK release”.
You are not able to install Fortnite without easily anti-cheat enabled as the game is not launched until the EAC is placed in the installation folder. Easy Anti-Cheat is also available in nearly 500 games, including Apex Legends, Rust, Iracing and Fall Guys, as well as newer releases such as Elden Ring. No timeframe has been offered for when the epic online services SDK will roll out, but you may not wait long to finally experience the popular Battle Royale game on Ultrabook AI-driven hardware.
A step forward for available game on arm
It has been an exciting time for laptops with the widespread implementation of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors inside some of the best laptops in the last year or so.
We have praised many of the productivity machines driven by them as Snapdragon X Elite Soc, including the excellent Dell XPS 13 9350 (2025) and Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+ just to name a few. While compatibility is still not on par with the traditional Windows X86 experience, snappiness of performance (and leading battery liver) has made them a viable opportunity for work.
Now, with the news that Epic Games is working on bringing light anti-cheat software to bring (without a doubt) the biggest game on the planet to arm, we could see this as a breakthrough for games on Ultrabooks.
Last year we were blown up by Snapdragon X Elite’s game features, which included running Baldur’s Gate 3 in 4K. While Qualcomm Adreno GPU, baked on the chip, does not compete with the discreet graphics found in some of the best game-laptop computers, there is certainly potential for a playable future on hardware, and it is especially to avert, as modern macbooks with M-series chips also use arm-based architecture.
Some of the most popular PC games use easy anti-cheat by default, so epic games could take a massive step forward for accessibility, especially if the titles can be optimized for Qualcomm’s hardware.
As we have seen with the rise of Steam Deck, Asus Rog Ally X and other handheld games -PCs, developers have begun to caters to integrated graphics solutions through the AMD Z1 and Z2 chips. While these are X86 devices, we could see future handheld using arm with a wider accessibility of games if more software can be adopted over time.
