r/gamingnews • u/esporx • 14h ago
Epic Games vibe codes new launcher because 'programming is hard,' claims it starts 46% faster than Steam — Preview is available now but not recommended for competitive players
https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/epic-games-vibe-codes-new-launcher-because-programming-is-hard-starts-46-percent-faster-than-steam-preview-is-available-now-but-not-recommended-for-competitive-players71
u/dlpuia 14h ago
If they're vibe-coding their launcher, that explains a lot why UE5 is so badly optimized.
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u/Mistform05 13h ago
UE5 doesn’t do the optimization. The developer does. As in. Creating lower poly assets, LODs, smart material usage, textures, etc. Game Devs got lazy, not the engines.
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u/onthefence928 9h ago
The engine can absolutely be optimized, and really good engines make it easy for games to be optimized too
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u/Mistform05 9h ago
Optimization starts at the assets and game logic. If that is bad, no engine will run well. Garbage in, Garbage out.
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u/Cliler 7h ago
Game devs hasn't gotten lazy, they can't put their practices to use when their schedule sucks ass if the ones up top are demanding impossible delivery dates with the scope of modern triple A games of releasing yearly slop and trying to communicate with 15 different studios that live in wildly different time zones.
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u/TheExiledPrince 12h ago
no, if the inner workings are vibe-coded you cannot optimize for dogshit, name a single UE5 game that warrants the performance needed for how it looks.
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u/Mistform05 12h ago
Give it 6 months and vibe coding will be more efficient and cleaner than normal coding. Just like how art generation created mutants and then 6 months later, we have indistinguishable influencers.
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u/Petersonx310 12h ago
Haven’t people been saying this for years now and while it has gotten better a 6 month timeline seems crazy. Especially with how many bugs and issues the new launcher had
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u/Halfrican009 9h ago
Software engineer here, models are already amazing. I have not hand coded anything in months. However, a lot of talk in this article / thread really depends on what people are referring to as "vibe coding". If real engineers are using agents intelligently, personally would not call it vibe coding. To me vibe coding is just letting an agent run wild without zero human review or direction to the finished code. Agents are so good now any engineer worth his salt can produce code just as good if not better than they could bare handed if they actually give a shit or have the time to make sure what they're producing is still high quality (code reviewing, etc).
AI code is not inherently bad anymore, and the models are continuing to improve. Also flagship models have not made "junior" mistakes in months.
I am not a fan of AI, and agentic development has sapped almost all of my enjoyment from my job, but the fact is ai coding is incredible and it's not going away I can promise you that
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u/uchuskies08 5h ago
It's funny watching people who don't use the technology convinced it just doesn't even work! It's like man, if you only knew.
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u/Key_Organization2026 12h ago
and it has had a crazy rate of improvement, I remember ai videos looked so stupidly bad not more than a year ago, now I'm watching Islam Makhachev having a rap battle with Dillon Danis and I literally can't tell if its ai or not just from the video
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u/Petersonx310 12h ago
Skill issue and code bases are more complex then generating images. The new app is awful, it is the future but still needs more time
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u/Key_Organization2026 5h ago
Opus 5.5 is already better at writing code than 99.9% of programmers. To say otherwise is to be in denial or ignorant about it. So saying skill issue is like telling a runner it's a skill issue that he's slower than a horse (also the horse is getting a lot faster every year).
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u/Mistform05 4h ago
I love this lol. The proof is in the pudding. Low level programmers are being let go in mass. Not because these companies want to. Because they can replace them fairly easily with AI. Does it suck? Sure. But isn’t this part of the process of the utopian “not needing to work unless you want to”. Because that transition was never going to be easy. But I think what is happening now is what that looks like.
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u/Key_Organization2026 4h ago
I can't see that far into the future but even if that's where we are headed, it will get a lot shittier before it gets better. We are so behind in the hardware department. Until we have robots that can be controlled by ai that generate most of our labor then we can have abundance of resources but how far is that 20/30 years? Right now we will have a crazy increase in the software side which will lead to a bunch of job loss even in "meaningful work" like art and music. We're probably gonna have a period where the gap between the rich and the poor will be so unprecedented that unless those trillion dollar companies start to do something about it people wont be happy about it in the next couple of decades.
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u/Mistform05 12h ago
Exactly this. I used to be a texture artist using Sunstance Designer and I stopped doing it fully. AI does it better and quicker. Now I use AI to fill my knowledge gaps and now I’m doing a little bit of everything.
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u/onthefence928 9h ago
You aren’t a coder are you?
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u/Mistform05 9h ago
I can 3D model, texture, rig, and know multiple programming languages. But nah. I don’t know what I’m talking about. Only been in various industries for almost 20 years.
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u/onthefence928 9h ago edited 6h ago
Yeah that makes, should like you are describing career experience that is wide but shallow. The perfect kind of experience for AI.
Those of us deeper into software engineering for example see AI as tool to quickly producing general code but not very good at producing difficult code where correctness and speed are critical
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u/VehicleNo6581 7h ago
That is very much wrong. AI, specificaly opus 5.5, has surpassed human in coding and testing. We even did some research at our company that proves it.
The only thing that AI is bad at, is to design software architecture. Anything that is code related including complex algorithm, opus will surpass any engineer. The limitation is gery much the engineer talking with opus and not actually opus.
Actually if you ask any real software engineer, I can tell you that most of them have not touch to actual code in months.
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u/BarnacleMayonnaiseXX 6h ago
This was hard to read. “Deeper into a skill” lmao
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u/onthefence928 6h ago
Tried to keep it generic but failed, i made some edits to fix typos and clarify
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u/cynicown101 12h ago
Just had a look at the blog on the EGS and I was pretty shocked that they published a page that actually does say:
"Programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one".
I just cannot see it being the case, so I cannot fathom what would possess them to say it, given the ill will towards AI and their brand in general.
Really strange and unprofessional stuff.
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u/Dragin410 12h ago
Most people outside of Reddit echo chambers either support ai or are indifferent to it.
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u/DocteurFatalis 9h ago
Most people inside reddit (read: you) make up statistics 90% of the time.
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u/Honest-Shock2834 8h ago
Thats very true. but that being said, most older people I know (50 yrs upward) and most conservatives, are really big fans of AI and actually voted to allocate huge space in the outskirts of my town for an ai datacentre, they think it will spike the economy and do wonders for us. my town has also a very scarce water supply, the well where we get our water is right below this new upcoming datacentre, most non ignorant people are sure there was foul play/corruption in getting the permissions to get the water supply needed for it. but the old folks are ecstatic we are "up with the times".
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u/Inadover 8h ago
So morons are in favour of it. Color me shocked.
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u/Honest-Shock2834 8h ago
but my point is that there are a lot of morons in favor of it, and that the AI backlash seems to be mainly online. I have zero hard data to back this up, its only my own perception.
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u/cynicown101 12h ago
Right, and?
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u/mrtouchybum 9h ago
And the overwhelming majority of the public won’t give a crap its vibe coded with ai. My kids, who all have PCs, won’t give a crap. Reddit is not the real world.
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u/khanable_ 14h ago
epic games store exists so i can claim free games that i will never realistically play but it stops me from buying them on steam during a sale because i own them somewhere else
i do not give two short fucks about how fast it opens
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u/ItsSadTimes 14h ago
Funny enough, a game being free on epic sometimes means higher sales on steam.
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u/ciemnymetal 12h ago
Makes sense, you can try out the game for free before comitting to buying
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u/Apt-Fee 11h ago
Why would you buy it if you already own it? If I have a game on epic I’m not buying it twice on the same platform
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u/ciemnymetal 8h ago
The two most popular reasons are supporting the devs and wanting games on steam. Personally I'm indifferent but there are a lot of hardcore steam users who just want a single launcher.
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u/Plastic_Schedule_891 13h ago
Absolutely. I just check store.epicgames.com/ once a week to claim the games and then I don't even need to open the launcher.
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u/-Memnarch- 8h ago
A free game on epic for a game I am interested in, reminds me to put it on the wishlist on steam for the next sale :D
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u/iNfANTcOMA_0 12h ago
So why even claim games?! You're never going to play them. Just stop.
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u/zgillet 11h ago
I claim ones I might play, but don't particularly plan to. It just seems dumb not to claim them - it's not taking up any of my space or anything.
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u/TylerBourbon 9h ago
This is the way. I have only one game on EGS that I paid money for, Alan Wake II, I have 30 or 40 other games because of their free games. Many of which I will probably never get to. But just in case I do, I have them in my library lol.
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u/ForgTheSlothful 12h ago
Sweeny aint making the money and the commenter is controlling his wallet. Let him be
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u/iNfANTcOMA_0 8h ago
Neither of those points were made by them so they are invalid. No point in claiming games.
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u/Dagordae 14h ago
Why is ‘It starts faster’ a selling point? Is shaving a couple seconds off of boot time really a big deal for anyone?
What about the actual performance?
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u/thekk_ 13h ago
Chrome was fast before all the bloat got added too
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u/oookokoooook 13h ago
It’s still fast.
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u/thekk_ 12h ago edited 12h ago
It's still slower than it used to be. Point is this is a first version of the Epic client that's light on features, of course it's going to be faster. The opposite would be problematic. And it's very likely that what they're advertising is not going to hold up as they build it.
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u/Soft_Lunch_183 7h ago
Please experience the XBOX app and come back to me and say that doesn't matter.
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u/Former-Entrance8884 3h ago
The Xbox app takee a couple of seconds to launch. Maybe 5 after an update. How is that a problem?
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u/Key_Organization2026 12h ago
Because the assumption is that vibe code is slop and performs worse, they are betting on this technology being not only better than human made software but they also think they are already there. I'm curious if any of the big companies gives them early access to internal unreleased models.
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u/SoSneakyHaha 14h ago
I dont have a hate boner for Epic like everyone else but the CEO makes it really hard to vouch for him.
Hes constantly cringe and supports AI openly. Wish he'd shut the fuck up
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u/Mistform05 13h ago
The dude does a ton of charity and donations. He is just being honest about the usage of AI. While everyone else is waiting and gauging the temperature in the room. If your company isn’t using AI in 5 years. RIP that company.
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u/KaijinSurohm 13h ago
Considering EA is laying off over 1,000 staff, then trying to justify it by saying it's to make it so they can do things better and faster, it's completely tone deaf.
I'm not even anti-AI and I think EA is being really stupid about this.
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u/darrigaz 11h ago
Bro. EA and Epic are two completely separate companies. No relation.
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10h ago
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u/KaijinSurohm 10h ago
Ah snap, my ad blockers kept me from seeing the paywall on The Verge.
Link I originally provided talks about how Epic is shifting to AI accelerated developtment for a disney game.
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u/NationCrusher 12h ago
Anyone know that meme from Rick and Morty: “your only purpose is to hand me butter”?
It’s a launcher. It’s only purpose to let me choose a game. And it’s only a few seconds faster because launchers load fairly quick anyways
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u/digita1catt 13h ago
AI part aside, all this does is prove to me how out of touch Epic are. No one cares how fast the launcher is, if steam is already unpercievably fast as it is.
No one uses Epic, because the feature set it shit. That's it. That's all it is. It's not a good service, and they haven't shown to have a customers best interest at heart.
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u/IORelay 12h ago
Steam is slow.
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u/digita1catt 12h ago
Your system is slow. Reduce your bloat.
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u/IAmYourFath 10h ago edited 10h ago
Wrong, steam is really slow. I dont use epic (at least not recently), so idk how fast it is, but steam is pretty shit. And tbh, i dont like gog galaxy either. All 3 launchers are ass imo. But gog is the only store where u dont need the launcher to install and play the game. For steam games just pirate, not worth the trouble of having that crap launcher on ur pc. Im not saying steam is worse than the other 2, i think they're all crap. Ironically, steam has the most bloat of the 3 probably. They use dll injections and whatnot. They mess with ur controllers, they mess with ur games. If u play any game outside of steam exitting steam beforehand is pretty much mandatory. And if u wanna play a steam game, severing steam from the equation (by pirating it) literally results in better fps and functionality, as long as u're not using their own proprietary steam controller btw, which conveniently DOESNT work on epic and gog games. Gaben is so jealous of apple and their walled garden. He's funding proton and linux real hard to escape microsoft's walled garden. He was so terrified of UWP apps putting an end to steam, but fortunately uwp apps failed hard otherwise we'd be like ios and android now, 99% of apps only being available in the app store and 30% fee. So gaben wanted to avoid the 30% fee from microsoft, to ironically preserve his own 30% fee. Like they say, there are no good billionairea. They dont exist.
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u/DocteurFatalis 9h ago
Y'all would not believe how much faster my new hello world app starts compared to steam. It may have fewer features but it sure is plucky!
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u/Ready-Explanation380 11h ago
46% faster sounds nice but I'll wait until it's stable before switching. Steam still works fine for me.
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u/Desperate_Shine6829 10h ago
I don’t even play on pc but I don’t think the start time is why people use steam.
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u/SoSneakyHaha 14h ago
I dont have a hate boner for Epic like everyone else but the CEO makes it really hard to vouch for him.
Hes constantly cringe and supports AI openly. Wish he'd shut up
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u/AAdmiral5657 13h ago
If they were really consumer first, they cpuld have just thrown some money behind Heroic. Here its just a pathetic attempt on capturing some users.
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u/Bubbaganewsh 13h ago
If it's still shit I don't care how fast it launches. They haven't figured that out .
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u/Drakiesan 13h ago
And it still lacks basically all the basic features Steam has. Epic Launcher sucks. I refuse to install it even if they would offer me free games.
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u/Hennessy_Halos 12h ago
starts 46% faster but is used 0% of the time. If they actually made Epic a good launcher people would use it
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u/VaporousMote 11h ago
For anyone else wanting to cancel:
https://www.epicgames.com/help/c-45487929/c-35761596/a16010170
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u/BakeJaldino 14h ago
The future is here boys! I’m ready for everything to be vibe coded and optimised to its peak!
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