Epic Games launches 'vibe coded' launcher rewrite, claims 46% speed gain over Steam

Epic Games released a preview build of its rebuilt Epic Games Store launcher. The client was built from scratch using AI "vibe coding" on a new tech stack. Epic claims a 46% faster cold start than Steam, verified by an external vendor. GM Martin Keely confirmed AI was used to write new code, not analyze old code.

"We started from scratch. This is a completely new architecture for both the store and the launcher shell." - Martin Keely, GM, Epic Games Store
Epic replicated existing functionality without reusing the legacy codebase.
The rebuild runs on a different tech stack than the previous launcher.
Keely says AI let a small team rewrite and ship across Windows, Mac and Linux faster.

Epic's AI-first approach also applies to an unannounced Star Wars and Marvel shooter.
Staff on that project were told to adopt "AI first" workflows, per Bloomberg.
"The aim isn't to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff." - Tim Sweeney, CEO, Epic Games
The pivot follows Epic's layoff of 1,000 workers seven months earlier.

Epic warns the preview "will have some bugs" that testers can help flag.
Social and account-management features have not yet migrated from the legacy client.
Epic says it is "working toward feature parity" with the old launcher.
Adoption is spreading by word-of-mouth, not pushed through the existing store software.

For Publishers & Developers: Budget Linux builds for Easy Anti-Cheat multiplayer titles ahead of Epic's anti-cheat upgrade.
For Investors & VC: Discount valuations of launcher and storefront-tooling startups whose moat rests on engineering headcount.
For Service Vendors: Pitch Linux porting and anti-cheat QA to multiplayer studios already shipping on Epic.