Epic says its AI-built launcher boots 46% faster than Steam

Epic Games has rebuilt its PC games launcher with generative AI and says it starts 46% faster than Steam.

The new Epic Games Launcher is available to try in Preview. A launcher is the app players install, update and start their games from. Epic invited users to test this version themselves and compare boot speeds.

The 46% faster claim comes with a graph comparing start-up times, according to Tom's Hardware. Epic has not published its full test method. The comparison is its own figure, not an independent measurement.

On its official Facebook account, the company put it more bluntly: "We vibe coded the Epic Games Launcher to be faster than the other guy." Vibe-coding means describing what you want in plain language and letting an AI system generate the code, rather than writing each line by hand. Epic added the tagline because "programming is hard".

Epic Games Store vice president and general manager Martin Keely said the approach let a small team rewrite the codebase and ship across platforms more quickly, according to Eurogamer. He described vibe-coding as making the team more efficient. That is Epic's account of its process.

Epic described the first Preview release as light on features. It promises a new look and a client that is faster and more responsive than the current version. Speed first, extras later.

Bugs are expected. Epic said the new Launcher will have some issues and asked users to report them with the Send Feedback button inside the Launcher. That feedback channel is part of the Preview build.