Epic Games has confirmed that its launcher for Linux will officially support SteamOS and Steam Decks, giving the software a formal place on Valve's Linux-based platform for the first time.
Jake Jones, Epic Games' communications director, told GamingOnLinux that the new Epic Games Launcher remains in Preview and that the company intends to support as many Linux distributions as possible. He listed Fedora, SteamOS, Cachy and Omarchy among the distributions Epic plans to support.
The confirmation follows Epic's October statement that it was investigating making Fortnite compatible with SteamOS. At that time, the Epic Games Launcher was in preview, but SteamOS was not specifically listed as a supported distribution.
Jones also addressed the AppImage packaging format, which is being replaced with Debian and Ubuntu .deb downloads. He said Epic is testing and evaluating packaging formats for distribution and will restore AppImage this month.
Official launcher support for SteamOS does not guarantee that Fortnite will arrive on SteamOS. Support for Easy Anti-Cheat Linux v2 remains an open question. When Epic announced its work to bring Fortnite to Linux, the company said the Steam Deck does not support the features required for its EAC v2 solution, though it said it was actively talking with Valve and hoped to support it in the future.
The SteamOS commitment is significant for US consumers because SteamOS and the Steam Deck are Valve's products, and the Epic Games Launcher is the distribution channel for Epic's storefront. Users of the launcher on SteamOS have not had SteamOS listed among supported distributions.
Epic's move comes as the launcher is still labeled Preview, and the company has not said when the Linux version will leave that stage.
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