Epic Games has unveiled a preview of a redesigned Epic Games Launcher, a move intended to revitalize its storefront after eight years. The company announced that the new launcher has been "vibe-coded" and rebuilt from the ground up, aiming for improved speed and responsiveness compared to its predecessor and competitors like Steam. This approach, which leans into artificial intelligence and a more informal, "vibe-coded" methodology, has sparked a significant backlash online.
In its announcement post, Epic stated, "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 company also took direct shots at Steam, with its official X account posting, "We vibe coded the Epic Games Launcher to be faster than the other guy." This was accompanied by a graphic suggesting superior performance benchmarks. This marks a notable shift, coming shortly after Epic reportedly pushed its internal development teams towards an "AI first" approach, integrating generative AI into their workflows.
Martin Keely, general manager of the Epic Games Store, told IGN that the launcher has been "rebuilt entirely from the ground up" with a new tech stack and rewritten components, including the download manager, library, and the store architecture itself. Features like discoverability and product detail pages have also been redone.
However, the online reaction has been largely negative, with many users criticizing the "vibe-coded" framing and the perceived immaturity of the approach. Some users expressed concerns about linking payment information to a platform that uses such unconventional development language. One user on X remarked, "This launcher is so fucking vibeslopped its funny, but holy crap, these people are hilarious." Another user stated, "Them publicly announcing the new update was Vibe coded does not give me confidence to keep my card linked with it."
Further compounding the criticism is Epic's concurrent announcement that it is bringing Fortnite to Linux via Valve's Proton compatibility layer. This has led some to point out the irony of Epic criticizing Valve while simultaneously utilizing Valve's technology. "Bold of them to sh*t on Valve/Steam, and then literally use Proton internally for Windows compat on Linux…," one user wrote on X. Others have been direct in their rejection of the new launcher, with one Twitch streamer commenting, "Are you seriously incapable of embarrassment? I’m not leaving Steam for this trash."
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has emphasized the company's commitment to "retool[ing] for maximum AI acceleration," with the goal of enabling teams to "build MORE and BETTER stuff." The success of this new direction for the Epic Games Store, however, remains to be seen, as the preview version of the launcher is still undergoing testing and has been described by Epic itself as potentially having issues. The company has assured users that these problems will not affect gameplay once titles are launched.