Epic Games opens a preview of a new launcher built with AI

On October 14, 2026, Epic Games opened a preview of a rebuilt Epic Games Launcher. The new version is available to everyone on Windows, macOS and, for the first time, on Linux. In the official Epic Games Store blog, the team admitted: programming is hard, so the launcher was 'vibe-coded', that is, built with AI.

Speed

Speed is named as the main selling point in the announcement. According to Epic, a cold start of the new launcher takes 5.47 seconds versus 10.07 for Steam, which is 1.8 times faster. The store opens three times faster than Steam's, the transition from background to library takes 0.36 seconds versus 0.42, and library loading is described as '30 times faster'.

The interface was rebuilt: store, library and the Develop section are now in one window, and the top bar can be customized by pinning favorite games and apps. Each game has its own page with a status and launch buttons. The library supports grid and list with a description panel, collections, search and filters as you type, hiding games, and sorting by platform and genre. The download manager shows read and write speeds and lists of active, queued and failed downloads.

There are few features in the first release: it is 'a speedboat, not a yacht', though the cart is already there. Some social features and account settings from the old launcher are not yet available, and the company is working on parity. For Fortnite and Rocket League, Epic advises staying on the previous launcher during the preview, as well as for developers of live projects. The account, purchased and installed games, cloud saves and progress carry over.

Linux and anti-cheat

The launcher also works natively on Linux: that is Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and newer, Fedora 43 and newer, Debian 12 and newer. Many games are built only for Windows and may require a compatibility layer. Fortnite on Linux is promised after the rebuilt Easy Anti-Cheat works for a critical mass of distribution maintainers. The new version of EAC does without a kernel driver, relying on measured boot, kernel lockdown, IOMMU and eBPF logic. A player who launches a protected game without the required conditions will see an error, not a ban. Steam Deck does not support the required capabilities, but Epic says it is talking with Valve.

Image: Epic Games Public domain

Translation editors: Соловьев В., Пеков А.