The Epic Games Store needs a pick-me-up. Eight years in, the glorified Fortnite launcher is great for getting free games but has languished amid the company’s other priorities. A plan to overhaul the storefront was revealed a few months ago and it was basically to make it more like Steam. Now Epic Games has revealed that improvements will also be vibe-coded with AI.
“Programming is hard,” the company wrote in its official announcement post for a newly released preview version of a revamped launcher for the store. “So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look. This first release is light on features. Think of it as a speedboat and not a yacht! Though it does have advanced digital commerce technology such as a shopping cart.”
Yes, posting rage-bait appears to be part of the strategy here. Just a week after forcing internal game developers to go “AI first” and incorporate genAI even into their artwork pipelines, Epic is embracing the tech publicly as well teasing upcoming changes to the place where it wants millions of players to store their credit card info. The company even took shots at Steam.
“We vibe coded the Epic Games Launcher to be faster than the other guy,” the Epic X account posted. “Don’t believe us? Test it out for yourself in Preview.” It was accompanied by a graphic showing that the genAI storefront performed faster on certain responsiveness benchmarks than Valve’s competitor. This isn’t just a stunt or a flex for AI boosters on Elon Musk’s social media platform, though. The adults at Epic aren’t joking about wanting to make its storefront more appealing.
Cracking job lads off to a great start loving the ai work https://t.co/Hiu14KogCS pic.twitter.com/RtJDEQu3o3
— gold (@golden_aion) October 14, 2026
I would strongly advise removing all payment methods linked to your EGS account if you use one.
Them publicly announcing the new update was Vibe coded does not give me confidence to keep my card linked with it. https://t.co/RBCZTTnQ1U
— Pandan | GearGrit on Steam (@Weston_Mitchell) October 14, 2026
lmao. https://t.co/NLtkSSfEAj pic.twitter.com/DI5ghvlwaX
— James Tusha (@signalspikedev) October 14, 2026
First day of vibe coded Epic Games Launcher and I switched Fortnite from Performance mode to DX12 and it opened UEFN https://t.co/D1vIlfPLJj
— Reisshub (@Reisshub) October 14, 2026
“It’s been rebuilt entirely from the ground up,” Epic Games Store general manager Martin Keely told IGN. “So this is a completely new tech stack, a complete new rewrite of both the shell, which has the download manager, library, and the app itself, as well as the new store architecture. So features like discover and product detail pages, those have all been rewritten.”
But the effect online has been a wave of people roasting Epic’s “vibe-coded” framing of the rollout and the fact that the launcher appears borked in ways not usually seen for a product rollout users are expected to take seriously.
Epic also announced that it’s bringing Fortnite to Linux via Proton, a compatibility layer made by, surprise, Valve. “Bold of them to sh*t on Valve/Steam, and then literally use Proton internally for Windows compat on Linux…,” one VR modder wrote on X. “This launcher is so fucking vibeslopped its funny, but holy crap, these people are hilarious.” A Twitch streamer wrote in the comments beneath Epic’s announcement, “Are you seriously incapable of embarrassment? I’m not leaving Steam for this trash.”
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed this week that Epic is “retool[ing] 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,” he added. The proof will be in what the company actually ships. Its Epic overhaul preview has yet to pass the test of “more” or “better.” “The new Epic Games Launcher is in Preview for testing, and with any beta there could be issues,” reads the disclaimer. Epic promises those problems won’t affect players once they actually boot up their games, most of which weren’t vibe-coded. At least for now.
