Epic Games is announcing a big refresh to its PC game launcher in preview today, saying the new version is “much faster” and now supports Linux. But the company, which publicly took a big step forward in AI-assisted development, also notes that the update was “ambience-coded.”
“Programming is hard,” Epic says in a blog post. “So instead of doing that, we coded a new Epic Games launcher that is much faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look.”
On Monday, CEO Tim Sweeney announced that the company had “a huge pivot underway,” where it would “move developers to retool for maximum AI acceleration.” Sweeney said the goal “is not to do the same thing with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to create MORE and BETTER things, and to bring benefits to all teams using Unreal.” Bloomberg also reported this week that an Epic executive on an unannounced Disney title told staff there would be “no more hand-written code.”
“We used AI as a tool for this,” says Martin Keely, Epic vice president and general manager of the Epic Games Store and Epic Online Services. The edge in a launcher briefing. “This is part of our migration as a company to using AI in new and different ways.” Keely says the AI has been “extremely helpful” for testing and for “replicating the core functionality of the existing launcher,” and he also notes that it also allows Epic to offer the new launcher on Linux.
Epic has been working on the launcher for “most of this year,” Keely says, and while AI has helped Epic “accelerate our development,” the team working on the new launcher hasn’t adopted the “no more hand-written code” model reported by Bloomberg. “We definitely had agents write and review all the code,” Keeley says. “We used it to replicate basic functionality.” But the development team “managed this process” and “oversaw everything we did.”
Still, even though the team’s approach to pitching predates what Sweeney announced this week, “it’s on the same bandwagon,” Keely said. “The launcher is something that demonstrates the speed and efficiency of the development process and the actual outcome that we believe gives us confidence that the direction we are heading in is positive for our business and for game development in general.”
The new Epic Games Launcher preview will be available on Windows, Mac, and Linux starting today, and the old version will remain available. (In addition to the Linux version of the launcher, Epic also announces plans to bring Fortnite to Linux via the app.) Epic doesn’t have a specific timeline for when everyone will need to upgrade to the new version, Keely says, but the company will do the full launch when the update feels “stable” and has parity in “all the places we need it” with the current launcher.
In March, Epic laid off more than 1,000 employees. “Since this is a thing now, I should note that the layoffs are not AI-related,” Sweeney said in a memo to staff at the time. “To the extent that it improves productivity, we want to have as many great developers as possible developing great content and technology.”
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