Knowing how to install the Epic Games Store on Steam Deck means using great technology and making it even better. Not only will you have the Steam store at your disposal, but with this easy relatively simple solution, you can also add one of the other major PC gaming storefronts to your device. It only takes a few steps to sign in to your Steam account (or create a new one) and have instant access to your full library of games, ready and waiting (hopefully) to work just as seamlessly on the go. However, Steam isn’t the only digital distribution platform out there, and it’s certainly not the only one that works on the Steam Deck.
The Epic Games Store, with its weekly free games and numerous exclusives, has become a major force in digital distribution and is a storefront you can quickly access on the Steam Deck. The store has been available for Linux users for a long time thanks to Lutris, which uses Wine to create a layer of compatibility with the Windows version of the store, but you won’t need to make it work on Steam Deck. Here’s how to install the Epic Games Store on Steam Deck.
Συνδεθείτε στη λειτουργία επιφάνειας εργασίας
Πρώτα πράγματα πρώτα, πρέπει να εκκινήσετε το Steam Deck στην υποκείμενη επιφάνεια εργασίας της εγκατάστασής του στο Plasma KDE Linux. Μπορείτε να το κάνετε αυτό με κρατώντας πατημένο το κουμπί λειτουργίας και πατώντας “Switch to Desktop” στο μενού που εμφανίζεται. Μετά από μια σύντομη μετάβαση, θα πρέπει να βρίσκεστε σε ένα οικείο περιβάλλον επιφάνειας εργασίας.
Σε αυτό το σημείο μπορείτε να συνεχίσετε να χρησιμοποιείτε το εγγενές χειριστήριο του Steam Deck για πλοήγηση (μπορείτε να εμφανίσετε ένα πληκτρολόγιο πατώντας Steam+X και να ελέγξετε το ποντίκι με τα touchpad), αλλά τα πράγματα θα είναι πολύ πιο εύκολα αν συνδέσετε ποντίκι και πληκτρολόγιο μέσω Bluetooth ή USB-C.
Εγκαταστήστε το Epic Games Launcher
Χρησιμοποιώντας το προεπιλεγμένο πρόγραμμα περιήγησης Mozilla που είναι ήδη εγκατεστημένο, μεταβείτε στον ιστότοπο της Epic Games και κατεβάστε την έκδοση των Windows του Epic Games Launcher. Μόλις γίνει αυτό, ανοίξτε το Steam, κάντε κλικ στο “Παιχνίδια” στο επάνω μενού και, στη συνέχεια, μεταβείτε στην επιλογή “Προσθήκη ενός παιχνιδιού εκτός Steam στη βιβλιοθήκη μου”. Θα δείτε μια λίστα συμβατών εφαρμογών που μπορείτε να συνδέσετε με το Steam (το Mozilla είναι ένα, που σας επιτρέπει να εκκινήσετε το πρόγραμμα περιήγησης από το SteamOS), αλλά προς το παρόν θα πρέπει απλώς να κάνετε κλικ στην αναζήτηση για να μεταβείτε στο σημείο όπου κατεβάσατε το πρόγραμμα εγκατάστασης του Epic Games Launcher.
Εάν δεν έχετε αλλάξει καμία ρύθμιση συστήματος, αυτό το αρχείο θα πρέπει να βρίσκεται στον προεπιλεγμένο φάκελο “Λήψεις” και να είναι προσβάσιμο χρησιμοποιώντας την ακόλουθη διαδρομή. Εάν έχετε αλλάξει κάποιες ρυθμίσεις, όπως το όνομα του συστήματός σας, φροντίστε να τις αντικαταστήσετε [doorstop] with the name you used accordingly:
“/home/doorstop/Downloads/EpicInstaller-13.0.0.msi”
Once logged in, you should see the Epic Games Installer in your Steam library. Right-click on it and click Properties. From there go to the Compatibility tab and select the “Force use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool” option. This will allow you to select a version of Proton to use from a new drop down menu. Select the latest version and close the window.
From here, just launch the installer from Steam like you would a game. An installation window, identical to the one you see in Windows, should appear. Go past the familiar prompts and see — Epic Games Launcher is installed.
Add Epic Games Launcher to SteamOS
Now you can stop there, but what you might really want to do is be able to launch the Epic Games Launcher from within SteamOS. For this you need to do a little more work.
Go back to Steam (it’s still in desktop mode here) and right-click on the Epic Installer entry in your library again. Click on the Shortcut tab and there you’ll see two entries: “Target” and “Start In”, both of which should point to Epic Installer and the folder it’s in respectively. To launch the Epic Games Launcher from within SteamOS, you will need to change them to where the launcher is currently installed.
This is a bit more difficult than you might expect, given the file structure created during the initial installation. The easiest way to start finding it is by right-clicking on an existing game already installed on Steam, going to Local Files, and browsing to where those files are. This will take you to your “steamapps” folder on Linux, where you can start looking for the Epic Games Launcher.
If you haven’t installed another game or are just looking for the full path, you should be able to find the executable using the path below, given that you haven’t changed any system settings. You can also use this path to search for the executable itself if you have it, using the folder names following “steamapps” to get there.
Target: “/home/doorstop/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/[numerical_identifier]/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Epic Games/Launcher/Portal/Binaries/Win32/EpicGamesLauncher.exe”
Start inside: “/home/doorstop/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/[numerical_identifier]/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Epic Games/Launcher/Portal/Binaries/Win32/”
Once you find it, copy the path to EpicGamesLauncher.exe in the Target field, while using the folder path found for Start In (the same path just without the executable at the end). Make sure both paths are pasted in quotes or this won’t work. If in doubt, just copy the above paths, replacing it [numerical_identifier] with the unique ID assigned to the folder created during installation (this will be the highest value number in the /home/doorstop/.local/share//Steam/steamapps/compatdata folder). You can also rename this non-Steam game shortcut to make it more easily recognizable on SteamOS as well, but this is optional.
The steps above can be followed in a great video originally posted by Gaming on Linux on YouTube, which helped us get it running on our own Steam Deck after a lot of trial and error with the Lutris route.
Back to SteamOS
To try things out before returning to SteamOS, just click Run on this shortcut from your Steam library. The Epic Games Launcher should launch, allowing you to log in and install any games from your library. To return to SteamOS, simply open the Start menu and log out, which will immediately launch Steam Deck into its native operating system.
This isn’t the only way to get the Epic Games Store working on Steam Deck, but it’s the easiest way that’s worked for us so far. Lutris is also sure to get an update to make it just as easy if you prefer to use it for third-party software on the Steam Deck. If you’re still deciding whether to get Valve’s new laptop, check out our Steam Deck review for the full breakdown of why it’s such an impressive gaming device.
This guide was updated on (9/26/22)
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