Epic Games just admitted something wild: its brand-new Epic Games Launcher was “vibe coded” — built with generative AI instead of traditional programming. “Programming is hard,” the company wrote in a blog post. “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.”
(Credits: IGN)
“Vibe coding” — writing software almost entirely through AI prompts rather than hand-written code — is usually a joke term. Seeing Epic use it to describe a flagship product launch is a genuine industry moment, and a sign of just how aggressively the Fortnite maker is pushing AI-assisted development.
How Epic Actually Built It
Speaking to IGN, Martin Keely, vice president and general manager of the Epic Games Store, explained the approach: “We have used AI as a tool as part of our development process. It’s obviously an issue that’s of high visibility at the moment across the industry, but for us, it made us more efficient and allowed a small team to rewrite the code base and be able to launch it faster across platforms, support Windows and Mac, and we’re going to have a Linux version as well.”
The new launcher promises a dramatically faster, more responsive experience with a refreshed look — addressing years of complaints about the old app’s sluggishness.
The Bigger AI Push at Epic
This is not an isolated experiment. A recent Bloomberg report claims Epic developers have been encouraged to use Anthropic’s AI assistant Claude, and that work on an upcoming Star Wars/Marvel crossover project should be conducted with “no more hand-written code.” CEO Tim Sweeney has said on X that the company is “moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration.”
Whether vibe coding produces software players can trust remains the open question. But if the new launcher really is faster and more stable, Epic may have just given the entire industry permission to stop hand-writing code — and start prompting.
Also Read: New Epic Games Launcher Arrives With 30x Faster Library and 46% Faster Boot Than Steam, Borderlands 4 Crashes to $20 at Amazon — Lowest Price Ever, 60% Off
Source: IGN — read the full story there.