Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, is leaning into generative AI, and they really want you to know it. In a blog post on Wednesday, the Epic Games Store Team announced that a preview build of its new store launcher is available for download. The post even claims the new launcher is faster than Steam in several areas. There is a big catch, though: by Epic’s own admission, the launcher was “vibe coded.”
“Programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look,” the first line of the blog post reads. For those lucky enough to be unfamiliar with the term “vibe coding,” it’s when programmers use AI to write code without necessarily understanding how the generated program works. While this practice has been criticized by software engineering veterans for its lack of maintainability (it’s hard to build on something that you don’t understand) and for introducing an increased risk of security vulnerabilities, AI devotees have embraced the practice.
As for how this new version of the Epic Games Store differs from the previous one, Epic writes, “This first release is light on features. Think of it as a speedboat and not a yacht! Though it does have advanced digital commerce technology such as a shopping cart.” Given the type of security vulnerabilities that vibe coded software can introduce, handing over your credit card information to this program is a bid disconcerting.
Epic’s blog compares the new launcher to its main competitor, Steam, claiming that the new Epic Games Store boots in 5.47 seconds, which is apparently 46% faster on a cold start than Valve’s storefront. Epic adds that its store is 14% faster than Steam at doing a “restore from system tray to library.”
Epic’s new launcher will also have “snappier navigation between library and store” and “less load on your system while it runs in the background.” The preview build includes voice chat, additional information on games in your library, customizable library views, faster filtering options, and more data on download speeds.
What is Epic’s stance on AI?
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has made it very clear where his company is headed, describing Epic as moving toward “maximum AI acceleration.” In an X post on Monday, he wrote:
We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration.
The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal.
This isn’t the first time Sweeney has taken a very pro-AI stance. After U.S. senators asked Apple and Google to remove X from the App Store when the social media platform was flooded with AI-generated sexualized images of real people, including minors, Sweeney argued that banning the app and Grok over this was a way for politicians to “censor all of their political opponents.” Epic previously admitted to using AI to help create Fortnite skins and released a controversial gen AI-powered Darth Vader NPC that was manipulated into saying slurs.
