A beta version of the new Epic Games launcher has been released, boasting a 46% faster speed than Steam when going from a cold start to the store page.
This launcher, currently in preview mode, is also said to be 14% faster than its competitor when transitioning from the system tray to the library.
Martin Keely, vice president and general manager of Epic Games Store, shared with IGN that the library now loads 30 times faster than in the previous launcher. The startup time has been cut in half, and the launcher only takes up 300mb of space. Keely mentioned, “That was another thing that we wanted to continue to make as small as possible to support the wide range of hardware that players have.”
Keely also stated that the launcher has been completely rebuilt from the ground up with a new tech stack and store architecture. Features like discover and product detail pages have all been rewritten for improved performance.
In a blog post, Epic mentioned that the new launcher was “vibe coded,” indicating that AI was used in the coding process.
When asked about the extent of AI usage in building the launcher, Keely explained that AI was utilized as a tool in the development process to increase efficiency and speed up the launch across different platforms.
The focus of the development was on code efficiency and architecture to enable quicker feature development. The design updates were managed by the normal Epic Games design group.
Epic’s embrace of AI in creating the new launcher aligns with reports of the company transitioning to an “AI-first” production model.
As a result, Epic has postponed its Disney collaboration project, a shooter game featuring characters from Marvel and Star Wars franchises. The game director informed staff that there would be no more hand-written code and all game art would be generated using AI workflows.
Epic communications director Jake Jones emphasized the company’s commitment to AI-accelerated development led by Epic developers who are visionaries for their projects.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney announced on social media a significant pivot at Epic towards retooling for maximum AI acceleration to enable developers to build more and better content using Unreal Engine.