Epic Games releases AI-assisted launcher to compete with Steam

Epic Games has released a preview version of its redesigned Epic Games Launcher, developed using a method called ‘vibe coding’ which utilizes artificial intelligence to assist in writing and modifying code. The company claims the new architecture provides significantly improved performance, asserting that the store can open 46% faster than Steam. According to Epic's measurements, the new launcher starts in 5.47 seconds, compared to Steam's 10.07 seconds.

In response to these claims, Valve released a Steam update that improved startup performance and addressed various bugs. Subsequent user testing indicated that Steam could start in 5.23 seconds, slightly outpacing the new Epic Games Launcher. While the Epic Games Launcher now offers support for Linux alongside Windows and macOS, the preview version is noted to still contain bugs and lacks some features present in the previous version.