Epic Says New Vibe-Coded Launcher Is Faster, More Responsive in Steam Challenge
Epic released a Preview build of its game launcher, saying AI-assisted “vibe coding” made it faster and more responsive.
In the announcement, Epic 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.”
Epic Games Store General Manager and VP Martin Keely told PC Gamer that the team “started from scratch” and used AI as “a tool to write and review new features and new capabilities from the ground up in a different tech stack than what we had previously.” Keely said the goal was to “look at functionality that existed [in the current Epic Games Launcher] and [say] we want to replicate that, but not the code itself.”
Speaking to IGN, Keely said using AI to code the new Launcher “made us more efficient and allowed a small team to rewrite the code base and be able to launch it faster across platforms, support Windows and Mac, and we’re going to have a Linux version as well.”
Ars Technica reported that the vibe-coding description might sound tongue-in-cheek, but Keely’s comments described a ground-up rewrite that used AI to write and review features on a different technology stack. The new launcher is available in Preview, and Epic is supporting Windows and Mac, with Linux planned.