GamingAIEntertainmentEpic\u2019s new games launcher is \u2018vibe coded\u2019Epic is making a big push into AI-assisted development, and that approach includes its work on the new, faster launcher.\ufeffEpic is making a big push into AI-assisted development, and that approach includes its work on the new, faster launcher.\ufeffby Jay PetersOct 14, 2026, 1:55 PM UTCShareGiftIf you buy something from a link, The Verge may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.Image: Epic GamesJay Peters 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 big refresh of its PC games launcher today in preview, saying that the new version is \u201cway faster\u201d and now supports Linux. But the company, which has been publicly making a big push into AI-assisted development, also notes that the refresh was \u201cvibe coded.\u201d\u201cProgramming is hard,\u201d Epic says in a blog post. \u201cSo, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that\u2019s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look.\u201dOn Monday, CEO Tim Sweeney announced that the company has a \u201chuge pivot underway,\u201d where it will be \u201cmoving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration.\u201d Sweeney said the aim \u201cisn\u2019t 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.\u201d Bloomberg also reported this week that an Epic director on an unannounced Disney title told staffers that there would be \u201cNo more hand-written code.\u201d\u201cWe used AI as a tool for this,\u201d Martin Keely, Epic\u2019s VP and GM of the Epic Games Store and Epic Online Services, tells The Verge in a briefing about the launcher. \u201cIt\u2019s part of our migration as a company to use AI in new and different ways.\u201d Keely says that AI has been \u201csuper helpful\u201d for testing and for \u201creplicating the core functionality from the existing launcher,\u201d and he also notes that it\u2019s also allowing Epic to offer the new launcher on Linux.Stats from Epic about the updated launcher\u2019s speed.<\/p>\n
Image: Epic GamesEpic has been working on the launcher for \u201cmost of this year,\u201d Keely says, and while AI has helped Epic \u201caccelerate our development,\u201d the team working on the new launcher hasn\u2019t adopted the \u201cno more hand-written code\u201d model reported on by Bloomberg. \u201cWe definitely had agents write and review all of the code,\u201d Keeley says. \u201cWe used it to replicate the core functionality.\u201d But the development team \u201cmanaged that process\u201d and \u201csupervised the entirety of what we did.\u201dStill, while the launcher team\u2019s approach predates what Sweeney announced this week, \u201cit\u2019s on the same train,\u201d Keely says. \u201cThe launcher is something that is demonstrative of the speed and efficiency both from the development process and the actual output that we think gives us confidence that the direction that we\u2019re headed in is a positive one for our company and for gaming development overall.\u201dRelatedEpic shifts to \u2018AI-accelerated development\u2019 for upcoming Disney gameEpic is bringing Fortnite to LinuxThe new Epic Games Launcher preview will be available on Windows, Mac, and Linux beginning today, and the old version will remain available. (Alongside the Linux version of the launcher, Epic is also announcing that it plans to bring Fortnite to Linux through the app.) Epic doesn\u2019t have a specific timeline for when everyone will have to move over to the new version, Keely says, but the company will do the full launch when the update feels \u201cstable\u201d and has parity in \u201call places that we need\u201d with the current launcher.In March, Epic laid off more than 1,000 staffers. \u201cSince it\u2019s a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren\u2019t related to AI,\u201d Sweeney said in a memo to staff at the time. \u201cTo the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.\u201dFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Jay PetersAIEntertainmentGamingNewsMost PopularI tried out Apple\u2019s HomeView smart displayEverything Apple launched at its \u2018Welcome Home\u2019 eventApple launches HomeView, its first smart display for the homeGoogle finally releases Gemini 4 ArgonAll the news from Apple\u2019s \u2018Welcome Home\u2019 eventAdvertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GamingAIEntertainmentEpic\u2019s new games launcher is \u2018vibe coded\u2019Epic is making a big push into AI-assisted development, and that approach includes its work on the new, faster launcher.\ufeffEpic is making a big push into AI-assisted development, and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}