- Fortnite finally runs on Windows on Arm laptops as the game’s anti-cheat tool (EAC) is now compatible with the architecture
- The game also runs well on these Snapdragon X chips, according to reports
- This move was facilitated by a new Epic Online Services SDK, and other EAC games should soon work on Arm
It’s finally happened – now you can play Fortnite on a Windows 11 laptop with an Arm processor.
Windows Latest reports that Epic has kept its promise to get Fortnite’s anti-cheat tool that works with Windows on Arm machines, the 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 from 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 of course many aren’t).
That translation layer requires a performance overhead, as you might guess, but more problematically, certain technologies just don’t work at all on Arm systems, especially anti-cheat tools in the game world. Therefore, online games such as Fortnite, Call of Duty, Valorant, Apex Legends and so on will not work on a Snapdragon X device as they all use some form of anti-cheat tool.
From version 38.00 of Fortnitethe shooter now works on arm PCs as the Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) system is now natively supported, although the change was strangely not documented in the release notes.
However, the game has been confirmed to run fine on Snapdragon X laptops though by Windows Latest and also other reports on Reddit. Everyone agrees on that Fortnite runs nice and smooth, 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 works well considering the game is emulated. (There is native support for EAC now, but not for the game itself, which works via Prism – and the translation team does a good job here by all accounts).
EAC compatibility was delivered in the Epic Online Services SDK released back in August, but it’s still up to game developers to implement this support in their respective titles – it took Epic a few months to get this in place. Fortnite himself, of course. Other EAC games include Apex Legends and Fire Ringso hopefully we’ll see them running on Snapdragon X laptops before too long.
Outside of EAC, Arm CPU support will be a trickier issue, and cheat prevention systems such as Riot Vanguard (Valorant) and BattlEye (which is part of the PUBG’s arsenal of anti-cheat tech, as well Rainbow Six Siege and many other shooters) need their own solutions – which may or may not come. Since Arm isn’t exactly a pressing issue for many developers, we could be waiting a long time – maybe forever if you’re pessimistic (and the same goes for getting Linux support for these anti-cheat tools for SteamOS and handheld owners as well).
It’s worth noting that Microsoft has also applied improvements to Prism recently to ensure more games run on Snapdragon X chips – fixing an issue associated with AVX and AVX2 extensions – so gaming with Windows on Arm has come a long way in the past month.
That’s good news because these Copilot+ laptops are highly portable devices with impressive battery notches, so being able to engage in some meaningful gaming while on the go is a distinct advantage.
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