Epic Games is asking PC players to try a rebuilt Epic Games Launcher that it says starts faster than Steam. The publicly available Preview is an experiment in more ways than one: Epic says it used AI-assisted “vibe coding” to develop the app, and warns that the early build “will have some bugs.” So the pitch is speed; the fine print is that the thing may still behave like software under construction. At least that part is refreshingly direct.
Epic says it started the launcher from scratch rather than reusing the existing app’s code. Martin Keely, Epic Games Store general manager and vice president, told PC Gamer that the team used AI as “a tool to write and review new features and new capabilities from the ground up in a different tech stack.” The aim, he said, was to reproduce the existing launcher’s functionality, not its underlying code.
In comments to IGN, Keely said AI helped a small team work more efficiently and launch the rewrite faster across platforms. The Preview supports Windows and Mac, with a Linux version planned. That is a practical use for AI coding tools: helping a small team rebuild a familiar product, rather than having a chatbot confidently invent a new operating system and call it Tuesday.
Epic has made startup speed the headline feature, repeatedly framing the new launcher as faster than “the other guy.” Ars Technica’s testing found that the Preview went from a cold start to the store page a few seconds faster than Steam, assuming no login or update problems interrupted the process. That is a real result, but not a universal benchmark: startup behavior can vary, and the stated caveat matters when the launcher itself is still in Preview.
Epic also says the app can return from the system tray to the Library slightly faster than Steam. The claimed advantage is 0.06 seconds, a gap Ars found unnoticeable in its own testing. A stopwatch can measure plenty of things human beings cannot meaningfully care about; this appears to be one of them.
The comparison arrives nearly eight years after Epic launched its store and launcher as a competitor to Valve’s Steam. A faster front door could make Epic’s app less of a chore to use, but it does not, by itself, settle the larger competition between the stores. Epic’s announcement is a speed claim, not evidence that the broader launcher experience has been transformed.
For now, the useful question is whether the Preview feels faster in ordinary use—and whether its unfinished edges stay out of the way. Epic has offered players a chance to find out, while acknowledging that bugs remain. That is more honest than calling a preview build polished. It also means the real test is not a 0.06-second victory lap, but whether the new launcher can keep working after the announcement stops loading.
Sources: Glitch Please! and Ars Technica — https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/programming-is-hard-epic-games-leans-on-vibe-coding-for-its-new-launcher-app/ — Reporting and testing; quotes Epic Games Store General Manager and VP Martin Keely, who also spoke with PC Gamer and IGN.
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