Epic Games 新“Vibe Coded”启动器开放预览，称冷启动比 Steam 快 1.8 倍并支持 Linux

Epic Games has just released a preview of the previously announced brand-new Epic Games Launcher, and the company isn't being shy about how it was made. Here's how the announcement opens:

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, and has a new look.

The tongue-in-cheek line lands just days after founder and CEO Tim Sweeney described a “huge pivot” underway at Epic to retool for maximum AI acceleration. The new launcher looks like one of the first tangible results; still, Epic is upfront that this is a first step rather than a finished product, pointing out that the current release is relatively light on features.

Speed is clearly the primary goal. Epic claims the new launcher has a cold start time of 5.47 seconds, compared with 10.07 seconds for Steam, which makes it 1.8x faster. It also says the new launcher opens the Store 3x faster than Steam, and moves from the background to your library in 0.36 seconds versus Steam’s 0.42 seconds. The library itself is said to load 30x faster. In case you’re wondering, those figures come from testing commissioned by Epic and conducted this month by Keywords Studios, averaging five tests on each of 13 machines while excluding the three lowest-end machines tested.

PC gamers have been complaining about the old Epic Games Launcher's slowness for years. It looks like it took Claude or some other AI agent to fix it. Anyway, beyond the increased speed, the new Launcher also includes the following features:

• Game pages: every game gets a dedicated page showing its status, activity, details, add-ons, and play controls.
• Connected libraries: you can connect your other PC libraries and view everything you own in one place within the launcher.
• Customization: collections with game art, grid and new Details views, hidden games, and a customizable top bar for favorite games and apps.
• Faster search: results filter as you type, with sorting and filtering by platform, genre, and more.
• Download manager: live download, read, and write speeds, along with active, queued, scheduled, and failed downloads in one place.
• Social features: parties and voice chat with friends across Fortnite, the Epic Games Store, and the Epic Games app.

However, some features from the current Epic Games Launcher, including certain social features and account management options, aren't available yet. Epic also recommends that competitive Fortnite and Rocket League players and developers working on live projects stick with the current launcher during the preview phase.

The other big news is that the preview is available for Windows, macOS, and, for the first time, Linux, officially supporting Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or newer, Fedora 43 or newer, and Debian 12 or newer. The launcher runs natively on Linux, though Epic notes that many games are still Windows-only builds and may need a compatibility layer. On macOS, the preview supports Apple Silicon only.

Fortnite is also on its way to Linux, which has long been one of the most requested additions. To make its popular free-to-play game compatible, Epic had to rebuild Easy Anti-Cheat. Tim Sweeney’s company is also working with distro maintainers on security requirements:

Once it’s working with a critical mass of distro maintainers, we’ll bring Fortnite to Linux via the Epic Games Launcher. We’ll also make these improvements available to other developers so they can bring their games to Linux players.

That’s certainly excellent news for Linux users, who could soon see the list of compatible games rise significantly.

About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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