- Epic Games has announced a partnership with Qualcomm
- It will see Easy Anti-Cheat become available for Windows on ARM
- As well as Fortnite, it means the potential for hundreds of games to be playable
Epic Games has announced a new partnership with Qualcomm to support Easy Anti-Cheat for its Arm-based Snapdragon processors. This means Fortnite will finally be available on Copilot+ PC laptops utilizing the likes of the Snapdragon X family for the first time (which are some of the best laptops we’ve recently tested).
In a press release, Epic Games explained that it is working with Qualcomm Technologies to bring Epic Online Service’s Anti-Cheat over to Windows on Arm, which is used by laptops like the excellent Surface Laptop. This decision was due to how Windows 11 on Arm has “transformed the PC landscape” with the company’s processors representing a “rapidly growing segment of the PC gaming market”.
There are some distinct architectural differences between x64 (64-bit) and Arm, with the latter being far less compatible with the majority of software, especially gaming. Windows on Arm has come a long way in the past year, but there’s still plenty to improve. “Due to the way anti-cheat software works with x64 features, additional tooling is required for compatibility with these devices”.
Crucially, the testing and implementation of Easy Anti-Cheat on Arm could open the door for the many other games that utilize the software for online play, with compatibility spreading across the Epic Games Store (and beyond). “In addition to releasing Windows on Snapdragon anti-cheat support for Fortnite, we will bring this support to developers through an Epic Online Services SDK release”.
You’re unable to install Fortnite without Easy Anti-Cheat enabled, as the game will not launch until EAC is located in the install directory. Easy Anti-Cheat is also available in nearly 500 games, including Apex Legends, Rust, iRacing, and Fall Guys, as well as more recent releases like Elden Ring. No timeframe has been offered for when the Epic Online Services SDK will roll out, however, you may not be waiting long to finally experience the popular battle royale game on ultrabook AI-powered hardware.
A step forward for accessible gaming on Arm
It’s been an exciting time for laptops with the widespread implementation of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors inside some of the best laptops over the last year or so.
We’ve praised many of the productivity machines powered by the likes of the Snapdragon X Elite SoC, including the excellent Dell XPS 13 9350 (2025) and the Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+ just to name a few. While compatibility is still not on par with the traditional Windows x86 experience, the snappiness of performance (and leading battery lives) have made them a viable option for work.
Now, with the news that Epic Games is working on bringing Easy Anti-Cheat software to bring (arguably) the biggest game on the planet to Arm, we could see this as a breakthrough for gaming on ultrabooks.
Last year, we were blown away by the Snapdragon X Elite’s gaming capabilities, which included running Baldur’s Gate 3 in 4K. While the Qualcomm Adreno GPU baked onto the chip will not rival the discrete graphics found in some of the best gaming laptops, there’s certainly potential for a playable future on the hardware, and it’s especially exicting as modern MacBooks with M-series chips also use Arm-based architecture.
Some of the most popular PC games use Easy Anti-Cheat as standard, so Epic Games could be taking a massive step forward for accessibility, especially if the titles can be optimized for Qualcomm’s hardware.
As we’ve seen with the rise of the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally X, and other handheld gaming PCs, developers have started catering towards integrated graphics solutions through the likes of the AMD Z1 and Z2 chips. While these are x86 devices, we could see future handhelds using Arm with a wider availability of games if more software can be adopted over time.
