Epic Games has announced some new PC anti-cheat requirements for Fortnite for playing at tournaments. To be more precise, the game will now require PC players to enable Secure Boot, TPM, and IOMMU.
Secure Boot is a safety feature found in most modern computers. When it’s turned on, it makes sure that only trusted programs (like Windows and important drivers) can run when your computer starts up. Its main job is to stop dangerous software, like rootkits or viruses, from loading before your system is ready. It checks that everything is safe and approved before letting it run. So no, Secure Boot isn’t some kind of spyware from EA or Activision. It’s actually a helpful feature that protects your PC.
TPM 2.0 is a small security chip that comes with most modern computers. It helps keep your system safe by working with your operating system to protect important data. In fact, TPM 2.0 is required to run Windows 11. So, if you’re already using Windows 11, this feature is probably turned on already.
These two security features were also required for playing Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. However, Fortnite goes one step further, and it will also require IOMMU.
IOMMU is a security feature that helps the operating system control how hardware devices access system memory. This tech will allow Epic to better protect its game memory from being accessed by cheat hardware. You can enable it, alongside Secure Boot and TPM 2.0, from your BIOS.
As said, these requirements are only for those gaming at tournaments. If you are not attending tournaments, you can still play Fortnite without enabling them. So, it’s not like Epic Games is forcing these anti-cheat features to all players.
These new PC anti-cheat requirements will be mandatory from February 19th.
Epic also explained how it works to keep Fortnite fair. The company fixes major exploits before they spread and makes its game systems harder to reverse-engineer. It also uses Easy Anti-Cheat’s kernel-level protection to secure the game while it is running.
In addition, Epic monitors suspicious behavior using data analysis and machine learning. The team continues to develop new detection methods to better spot and confirm cheating. Player reports inside the game also help Epic identify and take action against cheaters.
Stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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