Epic releases test launcher created with AI — Ars Technica

Epic Games has opened access to a public test version of Epic Games Launcher, which the team rewrote from scratch using artificial intelligence tools. The company says the new app runs faster and responds to user actions more quickly than the previous version of the launcher.

AI for rewriting code

As Ars Technica reports, Epic Games Store general manager and vice president Martin Kiley explained that the team used AI to write and test new features. The developers sought to reproduce the functionality of the current launcher, but not transfer its old code to the new technological foundation.

According to Kiley, the use of AI enabled a small team to rewrite the codebase faster and provide support for Windows and Mac. The company also plans to release a version for Linux.

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Faster launch and Preview limitations

Epic emphasizes the launch speed of the new app and claims that it runs faster than Steam. Ars Technica's testing showed that after a cold launch, the new launcher opens the store page several seconds earlier than Steam, provided there are no issues with account sign-in or updates.

The company also said that restoring the app from the system tray to the library screen is somewhat faster, with the difference estimated at 0.06 seconds. The publication notes that this difference was unnoticeable during its testing.

Epic warns that the Preview may contain bugs and currently has a limited set of features. In particular, some social features and account settings have not yet been transferred to the new version. At the same time, the app has already received a list of recently launched games and a centralized download center for tracking network activity. Epic said it is working to achieve functional parity with the old version of the launcher.