Epic releases AI-assisted launcher preview and plans Fortnite for Linux

Martin Keely, Epic’s vice president and general manager of the Epic Games Store and Epic Online Services, told The Verge that Epic has worked on the launcher for most of this year. There is no specific timeline for when all users will have to move to the new version; Epic will do a full launch when the update is stable and has parity with the current launcher in all the places it needs, Keely said.

Epic is promoting the release as “vibe coded.” In a blog post, the company wrote: “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 statement followed a Monday post from CEO Tim Sweeney on X announcing a “huge pivot underway” at Epic, with developers being moved around “to retool for maximum AI acceleration.” Sweeney said 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.”

Keely told The Verge that Epic used AI as a tool for the launcher, including for testing and for “replicating the core functionality from the existing launcher,” and that AI also helped Epic offer the launcher on Linux. He said the team had “agents write and review all of the code” but “managed that process” and “supervised the entirety of what we did,” and did not adopt the “no more hand-written code” model. Bloomberg reported this week that an Epic director on an unannounced Disney title told staffers there would be “No more hand-written code.”

Engadget criticized the launcher announcement’s timing and tone, noting that Epic laid off more than 1,000 staffers in March and that Sweeney said at the time the layoffs were not related to AI. Engadget said the new launcher addresses some problems of the previous version, which Sweeney had called “clunky,” and that in its testing it was less clunky than the old one. Engadget also said the launcher can launch faster than Steam, according to Epic, and allows users to access games installed through Valve’s launcher from its own interface. But Engadget said it does not fix Epic Games Store’s identity crisis and offers no feature or hook unavailable on Steam or GOG.

On Linux, Epic said in a blog post that it is rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat, which it calls EAC Linux v2, and working with distribution maintainers on security requirements. Once the system works with a critical mass of distro maintainers, Epic will bring Fortnite to Linux through the Epic Games Launcher, the company said, and will make the improvements available to other developers so they can bring their games to Linux players. Epic plans to pilot EAC Linux v2 in Fortnite first, and Rick Deist, Epic’s engineering director, told The Verge there is no timeline for when a Fortnite Linux version might be available.

Fortnite has not been available on Linux in part because of cheating concerns. Epic’s Easy Anti-Cheat service supports Linux, but Fortnite does not. In February 2022, Sweeney said that for Fortnite, “We don’t have confidence that we’d be able to combat cheating at scale under a wide array of kernel configurations.” Deist said Epic is also “investigating” compatibility with Valve’s Linux-based SteamOS, though Keely said Epic does not plan to bring Fortnite to Valve’s Steam store. Epic said the Steam Deck “does not support the required features for our EAC v2 solution, but we are actively talking with Valve and hope to support it in the future.”