Fortnite Follows Call of Duty and Battlefield with Strict New PC Anti-Cheat Requirements
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Fortnite is requiring PC players to enable Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, and IOMMU starting February 19, following similar anti-cheat moves by Call of Duty and Battlefield.
Epic Games is shaking up the PC queue for Fortnite. Starting February 19, the battle royale juggernaut is rolling out strict new anti-cheat measures on Windows, requiring players to enable Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, and IOMMU. This puts Fortnite right in step with major competitive titles like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Valorant, which already use these hardware-level security checks to keep kernel-level cheaters out of lobbies. Competitive Fortnite tournaments have quietly required Secure Boot and TPM for a while now, but this upcoming update expands the rule to the entire casual PC player base.
While Epic reports that roughly 95 percent of its PC player base is on Windows 11-compatible hardware, messing around in your PC BIOS to toggle these settings is never entirely risk-free. As Polygon originally reported, diving into hardware configurations can occasionally lead to frustrating troubleshooting sessions for players with unique setups. However, the push for cleaner lobbies is a welcome priority for the community, especially as competitive integrity remains a constant headache across live-service games.
For most players, the transition should be straightforward since modern pre-builts usually have these features turned on by default. If your rig is a bit older or custom-built, you might need to follow a quick guide to switch on Secure Boot and TPM before you can drop into the next match. It is a minor friction point for the community, but a necessary one if we want fairer matches and fewer lobbies ruined by exploitative third-party software. Original reporting comes via Ford James at Polygon.
Tags: Fortnite, PC Gaming, Anti-Cheat, Epic Games, Hardware Security
Original article: Polygon