•Epic Spil, the company behind Fortnite, is leaning heavily into generative AI — and it wants you to know it. In a blog post published Wednesday, the Epic Spil Store Team announced that a preview build of its new store launcher is available for download, claiming in several areas that it outperforms Steam.
The announcement carries a notable caveat: by Epic’s own admission, the launcher was “vibe coded.” That term describes programmers using AI to write code without necessarily understanding how the generated program works. The practice has been criticized by software engineering veterans for its lack of maintainability and for raising the risk of security vulnerabilities, though AI enthusiasts have embraced it.
“Programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Spil Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look,” the blog post begins.
Epic Spil Store Team
The first release is described as “light on features.” Epic writes: “Think of it as a speedboat and not a yacht! Though it does have advanced digital commerce technology such as a shopping cart. Given the type of security vulnerabilities that vibe coded software can introduce, handing over your credit card information to this program is a bit disconcerting.
Epic’s blog compares its new launcher to Steam directly, claiming the Epic Spil Store boots in 5.47 seconds — reportedly 46% faster on a cold start than Valve’s storefront. The company adds that its store runs 14% faster than Steam at “restore from system tray to library.”
The preview build also promises “snappier navigation between library and store” and “less load on your system while it runs in the background.” Additional features include voice chat, more information about games in a user’s library, customizable library views, faster filtering options, and download speed data.
Epic’s AI Direction
The launcher launch aligns with CEO Tim Sweeney’s stated vision for the company. He has described Epic as moving toward “maximum AI acceleration,” writing on X on Monday that developers are being moved around to “retool for maximum AI acceleration.”
“The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal,” Sweeney wrote.
Tim Sweeney
Sweeney has repeatedly taken a pro-AI stance. After U.S. senators asked Apple and Google to remove X from the App Store when the platform was flooded with AI-generated sexualized images of real people, including minors, Sweeney argued that banning the app and Grok was a way for politicians to “censor all of their political opponents.” Epic has previously admitted to using AI to help create Fortnite skins, and released a controversial generative-AI-powered Darth Vader NPC that was manipulated into saying slurs.
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