Epic's AI-written store launcher starts 46% faster than Steam's, by Epic's own count

Every number in this launch comes from Epic. The company claims it halved the launcher's startup time and that a cold start to the store page is 46% faster than Steam's ^[1]. Epic says an external vendor verified the technical improvements ^[10]. PC Gamer was shown a demonstration before the announcement, and wrote that it has yet to test the client itself ^[11][10].

The tooling is not the only thing that changed. Epic's blog post calls the client "vibe coded," a term for prompting AI tools to produce code ^[3]. Store GM Martin Keely affirmed to PC Gamer that AI was used to write new code, not just to analyze the existing code ^[8]. He described the rebuild this way: "We started from scratch," said Keely. He said both the store and the launcher shell have a completely new architecture, and that Epic looked at existing functionality it wanted to replicate, but not at the code itself. AI, he said, was a tool to write and review new features and capabilities from the ground up, in a different tech stack from the one Epic had before ^[9].

A new architecture, a new launcher shell and a different tech stack arrived together with the AI tools. Any of them could explain a faster start. In our view the figures show what a from-scratch rewrite can reach, and they cannot say how much of that AI supplied.

The release is a preview, and the sequencing matters. Epic is not announcing it through the existing store software. It is treating the client like a beta test, expecting gradual adoption by word of mouth while it addresses feedback ^[7]. Early defects will therefore reach a small, self-selected group first. Whether and when the preview replaces the current client was not reported.

The launcher also sits inside a wider push. Bloomberg reported on Monday that Epic told the team on an unannounced Star Wars and Marvel shooter to take an "AI first" approach ^[4]. CEO Tim Sweeney said after that report: "We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration." ^[5] He added: "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." ^[6]

That is a claim about output per person. PC Gamer's report does not include team size, build time or defect counts for the launcher, so the claim cannot be checked against it.