Epic's New Game Launcher Is “Vibe-Coded”

Epic Games today announces a major update to its PC game launcher in preview, saying the new version is “much faster” and now supports Linux. But the company, which has publicly pushed hard for AI-assisted development, also notes that the update was “vibe-coded.” Epic in […]

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Epic is making a big push into AI-assisted development, and that approach includes its work on a new, faster launcher.

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is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.

Epic Games is announcing a major update to its PC game launcher in preview today, saying the new version is "much faster" and now supports Linux. But the company, which is publicly making a big push into AI-assisted development, also notes that the update was "coded with Viber."

"Programming is hard," Epic says in a blog post. So, instead of doing that, we coded a new Epic Games launcher that is much faster and more responsive than the current launcher and has a new look.

On Monday, the company's CEO Tim Sweeney announced that the company "has a big pivot underway," where it will "drive developers to reengineer for maximum AI acceleration." Sweeney said the goal "isn't to do the same thing with fewer people, but to make everyone here able to make more and better things and bring the benefits of Unreal to all the teams." Bloomberg also reported this week that an Epic director at an undisclosed Disney title told staff that "there will be no more handwritten code."

"We used artificial intelligence as a tool for this," Martin Keely, Epic VP and GM of the Epic Games Store and Epic Online Services, told The Verge in a report about the launcher. "It's part of our migration as a company to use AI in new and different ways." AI has been "incredibly useful" for testing and "replicating the core functionality of the existing launcher," Kiley says, noting that it also allows Epic to offer the new launcher on Linux.

Updated stats from Epic about launcher speed. Image: Epic Games

Epic has been working on the launcher for "most of this year," Kiley says, and while AI has helped Epic "accelerate our development," the team working on the new launcher hasn't opted for the "no more handwritten code" model reported by Bloomberg. "We definitely had reps writing and reviewing all the code," says Keely. "We used it to replicate the original function." But the development team "managed that process" and "oversaw the whole thing that we did."

Still, while the pitcher's team's approach predates what Sweeney announced this week, Keely says, "It's on the same train." Launcher is something that shows speed and efficiency both through the development process and the actual output which we think gives us confidence that the direction we are going is a positive one for our company and for game development in general.

Epic is shifting to 'accelerated AI' development for upcoming Disney game

The new Epic Games Launcher preview will be available starting today on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and the old version will still be available. (Along with the Linux version of the launcher, Epic has also announced plans to bring Fortnite to Linux programmatically.) Kiley says Epic doesn't have a specific timeline for when everyone should migrate to the new version, but the company will do a full rollout when the update feels "stable" and equals "all the places our current launcher needs."

In March, Epic laid off more than 1,000 employees. In a memo to staff at the time, Sweeney said: "As this matter now stands, I should note that the layoffs are not related to AI. "As far as it improves productivity, we want to have as many great developers as we can, producing great content and technology."

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