Fortnite drops Windows 7 and 8 support with their Chapter 4 Season 2 update
Windows 10 is now a minimum requirement for Fortnite
Back in December, Epic Games moves Fortnite to Unreal Engine 5.1, turning the game into a modern graphical showcase overnight thanks to the implementation of of the Engine’s Nanite, Lumen, and temporal resolution features. With this update, Epic Games stated that Fortnite would soon be dropping support for legacy Windows OS’, and now that time has come. With Chapter 4 Season 2, Fortnite no longer supports Windows 7 or 8 systems.Â
Why are Epic Games dropping support for pre-Windows 10 OS’? There are three main reasons. Reason 1 is security, as these legacy OS’ are becoming increasingly large security risks (as they are no longer receiving security updates from Microsoft); reason 2 is features, as these legacy OS’ lack many of the modern features that are available on newer OS’; and Reason 3 is development time, as legacy OS support requires a time investment to maintain.Â
Dropping support for pre-Windows 10 OS’ will give Fortnite’s developers more time to focus on their game, and the freedom to fully utilise the feature set of modern gaming systems. With the move to Windows 10 and newer OS’, it is likely that Fortnite’s developers will start to focus exclusively on the game’s DirectX 12 codepath on PC, allowing Epic Games to better utilise the API’s features.
  LEGACY OPERATING SYSTEM SUPPORT CHANGES
As previously announced, starting with Battle Royale Chapter 4 Season 2, players will be required to use Windows 10 or higher in order to continue playing Fortnite natively on PC in an officially supported manner. Windows 7 and 8 are now officially unsupported in Fortnite.
For players unable to upgrade, NVIDIA GeForce NOW is an available alternative so you can continue playing Fortnite via streaming on your current Windows 7 or Windows 8 PC.
Epic Games has recommended that users of Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs who cannot upgrade to Windows 10 start using Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service to play Fortnite on their legacy systems.
You can join the discussion on Fortnite dropping Windows 7 and 8 support on the OC3D Forums.