AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Ars Technica, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

---

Nearly eight years after launching its own Game Store, Epic Games is releasing a new version of its launcher that it describes as "vibe coded." In this approach, the company used artificial intelligence as a tool to write and review features from scratch on a different technology stack. Martin Keely, General Manager and VP at Epic Games Store, explained that the team aimed to replicate existing functionality without copying the original code. This method allowed a small team to rewrite the codebase more efficiently, enabling faster launches across Windows, Mac, and an upcoming Linux version.

Epic claims this new launcher is significantly faster than Steam. While Ars Technica’s testing confirmed the cold start time to the store page is a few seconds quicker, the difference in restoring from the system tray was only 0.06 seconds, which appeared unnoticeable during their own tests. The company previously announced a "storefront rearchitecture" in June with a goal of five times faster cold starts. However, the current preview build is noted for having bugs and lacking certain social features and account management options found in the legacy version.

Despite these limitations, the new launcher includes long-requested features such as a Recent Games list and a centralized downloads hub to track network activity. Epic states it is working toward feature parity with the old version. This release coincides with reports that Epic is pivoting to an "AI first" development model for future projects like Star Wars and Marvel-themed shooters. CEO Tim Sweeney noted on social media that this shift aims to enable teams to build more and better content using Unreal Engine, rather than simply doing the same work with fewer people.