Epic Games has achieved a technological breakthrough in software development, unveiling an updated version of its digital storefront, Epic Games Store, on October 14, 2026. The key feature of this release is the use of 'vibe coding,' where code was generated primarily by AI models under developer supervision rather than hand-written. As a result, the launcher now demonstrates a significant advantage in startup speed compared to its main competitor, Steam.
Technological Leap and 'Vibe Coding'
Epic Games developers openly stated that moving away from traditional manual programming allowed them to optimize the application architecture at a fundamental level. 'Vibe coding,' which involves providing intent-based tasks to AI models, became a key tool in this process. This approach had been previously announced by the company in the context of game development and has now been successfully scaled to infrastructure software. The preview version of the launcher, released for Windows, macOS, and for the first time for Linux, is positioned as a 'speed boat,' stripped of the 'bulk' found in previous versions.Functionality and Optimization
The new launcher offers users deep interface customization, including flexible tab management, the ability to create game collections, and the integration of libraries from different services into a single space. Epic Games emphasizes that the application consumes significantly fewer system resources in the background, which is crucial for gaming performance. Currently, the functionality is limited, but the core 'commerce' component, including the shopping cart, is fully operational.
Contradictory Data
There is a discrepancy in the assessment of the new product's performance. Official Epic Games representatives describe the speed increase in general terms as a 'noticeable acceleration that surpasses Steam.' At the same time, expert industry publications such as Goha and Shazoo cite a specific optimization figure—a 46% speed increase compared to the current version of the competitor. This discrepancy may be due to the fact that Epic focuses on the user experience of 'perceived speed,' while third-party sources cite data from preliminary synthetic tests of the beta version.
