Valve Speeds Up Steam a Day After Epic Touts 'Vibe Coded' Launcher
Epic launched an AI-built launcher claiming a speed edge over Steam; Valve pushed an update that beat it within 24 hours.
Part of a larger narrative
Epic Games Platform Overhaul
- Valve Speeds Up Steam a Day After Epic Touts 'Vibe Coded' Launcheryou are here
- Epic Games delays Disney Marvel/Star Wars shooter, mandates AI-first development
What to know
- Epic publicly branded its new launcher as 'vibe coded' with AI, tying it to CEO Tim Sweeney's broader push to retool Epic's development around AI acceleration.
- Within 24 hours, Valve shipped a Steam update (5.23s boot) that beat the 5.47s benchmark Epic had used as its launcher's main selling point.
- Epic's launcher refresh is bundled with native Linux support and a rebuilt Easy Anti-Cheat meant to eventually enable Fortnite on Linux, though Steam Deck compatibility is unresolved.
- Online reaction has focused less on the feature additions and more on mocking 'vibe coding' as a marketing term, with some commenters also noting Epic's launcher still lacks community features like forums and reviews.
The dispute Whether Steam's beating of Epic's benchmark is a genuine indictment of 'vibe coding' or an overhyped, not-yet-verified talking point seized on by Valve's fans. · positions read across 132 posts and comments
Epic's 'vibe coded' pitch is an embarrassing own-goal that undercuts its credibility as a Steam competitor.
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“Orgs using vibe coded as a sales pitch, Lord.”
GossiTheDog · Mastodon ↗
Optimizing boot time with AI is trivial and not evidence Valve is doing anything fundamentally different, or avoiding AI itself.
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“Optimizing a project with AI is one of the most trivial things you can do with AI. I also wouldn't buy it for a second that Valve engineers aren't using AI, especially for something as trivial as...”
hombre_fatal · Hacker News ↗
Speed aside, Epic's launcher still lacks basic community features Steam has had for years.
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“I can’t believe they don’t have the resource to bring these features to their launcher, they actively refuse to make it a tool for communities.”
aucisson_masque · Hacker News ↗
The backlash is overblown and parasocial, and Steam's claimed speed win isn't even confirmed as live for most users yet.
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“All I can think with this whole situation is how much time is wasted by people getting angry and defensive on behalf of a Valve. It's almost like people have a parasocial relationship with the application itself.”
Goronmon · Hacker News ↗
Tim Sweeney Epic Games CEOMartin Keely Epic VP and GM of Epic Games StoreEpic Games Developer of the new launcher and FortniteValve Maker of the Steam client
How it unfolded 8 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Epic details improved Linux anti-cheat as Fortnite-for-Linux advances
Epic published further technical details on EAC Linux v2, saying it wants to work with developers and distro maintainers to make anti-cheat work seamlessly on Linux, a prerequisite it had tied to eventually shipping Fortnite there.
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1 outlet first by Tom's Hardware, 10h ago · read ↗
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Epic "vibe coded" a new launcher. And got a 3rd party involved to test the launch times. They the made a post bragging about how it was twice as fast. Blah blah blah.. BUT in that time between the independent evaluations, and the story being released. Valve silent improved their performance. AFAIK, epic is still faster, but by like .5 seconds or…
2 more of the top 3 · 16 posts in this stretch
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Epic says it vibe coded its new launcher because ‘programming is hard’ https:// thenextweb.com/news/epic-games -launcher-vibe-coded-ai-pivot-fortnite-linux?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub Posted into TNW - All Stories @ tnw-all-stories-thenextweb
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I really hope this comes true. I'd love Electron-free versions of Discord and Teams. I've been building a native Rust/GPUI desktop app, and the difference in startup and memory is huge.
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Commentary casts the benchmark loss as indictment of vibe coding
Aggregated discussion summaries described the comment sections treating Steam's speed win not just as a product update but as evidence against the broader 'vibe coding' trend in software development.
“Steam's client now beats Epic's new AI-assisted launcher on startup time, and commenters treated the benchmark as an indictment of the whole 'vibe coding' trend.”
— hncompanion.com -
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Steam's client now beats Epic's new AI-assisted launcher on startup time, and commenters treated the benchmark as an indictment of the whole 'vibe coding' trend. #gaming 1/4
2 more of the top 3 · 22 posts in this stretch
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I get what you're saying, but I'd argue it's the correct way to think about it. Valve's first priority is always to stay in business, and to do that they have to be profitable. Valve isn't immune to doing shitty exploitive things. They made battle passes and lootboxes. I'll be honest I'm having a hard time tackling your message. I don't know what…
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Steam client and the Steam webpage still feels like it was stuck in the very early 2000s. Just look at the page source. Ridiculous. Maybe with AI they can finally replace both of those crapmountains.No proper gallery, terrible video viewing experience. Broadcast live right into your face. I mean they don't swim in moneypools, they can't afford it…
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Coverage frames Steam's response as a rebuke of 'vibe coding'
Gaming outlets and a large Hacker News thread highlighted that Valve's targeted optimization on its decades-old client beat Epic's AI-assisted rewrite, with commentary noting Epic's launcher still lacks long-missing features like forums, reviews and guides.
“Epic may have “vibe coded” a faster client, but Valve proved that targeted optimization on a decades-old ecosystem can still beat out AI speedruns.”
— Respawn First -
but $3.6 was a completely over the top scenario of keeping your PC sleeping the entire month (not using it at all, not even once), with a high idle consumption (typical is 2-3W, not 5), and at twice the price of the most expensive rate in the US (Hawaii, as far as I know, is at 48-50 cents). As I put it at the end, it's 90 cents a month tops, but…
2 more of the top 3 · 68 posts in this stretch
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This is why software is slow and everything uses 2GB of RAM at idle: because nobody really cares.I'm sure that AI made this speedup work much easier and quicker; probably just access to the monorepo and a prompt of "make the launcher boot up faster while changing no functionality. Keep track of before/after benchmark numbers" would be fine as long…
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Epic Games Confirms Fortnite Is Coming to Linux with New Easy Anti-Cheat https:// linuxiac.com/epic-games-confir ms-fortnite-is-coming-to-linux-with-new-easy-anti-cheat/
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Valve ships Steam update that beats Epic's benchmark
Less than 24 hours after Epic's claims, Valve pushed a Steam client update cutting boot time to 5.23 seconds, undercutting the 5.47 seconds Epic had claimed for its own launcher and neutralizing Epic's headline performance pitch.
“Steam just got a little faster... Steam launched in 5.23 seconds, beating the 5.47 seconds claimed by Epic "vibe-coded" launcher…”
— @Pirat_Nation -
Steam just got a little faster. Valve has released a new Steam update that improves startup performance. In a user test, Steam launched in 5.23 seconds, beating the 5.47 seconds claimed by Epic “vibe-coded” launcher Now Steam has pushed a major update and is faster than epic
2 more of the top 3 · 4 posts in this stretch
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What's the chances this was vibe-coded, too? Epic Is Overhauling Its Anti-Cheat So That Fortnite Can Finally Come To A New Platform https://www. gamespot.com/articles/epic-is- overhauling-its-anti-cheat-so-that-fortnite-can-finally-come-to-a-new-platform/ # EpicGames # AntiCheat # Linux # PC # Gaming
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I guess you chose the biased bitter stance that is factually wrong Now, now, projection will get you nowhere. :) As for Linus, guess what - he actually knows enough about programming to check the results before putting anything into a product. His decision to use AI as one of several tools isn't being forced on him by a profit-chasing company…
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Epic claims launcher is 46% faster than Steam from cold start
Epic's VP Martin Keely told press AI was 'used as a tool' to let a small team rewrite the codebase, and Epic publicized a benchmark claiming its launcher loads 46% faster than Steam's client, framing speed as its core pitch against Valve.
“AI was "used as a tool as part of [its] development process" to "allow a small team to rewrite the code base and be able to launch it faster across platforms"”
— Epic Games -
3 outlets first by GamesIndustry.biz, 1d ago · also 80 Level, TechPowerUp · read ↗
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1 outlet first by VideoCardz.com, 1d ago · read ↗
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Fortnite is finally coming to Linux thanks to Epic rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat, though Steam Deck support is still in the wind - https://www. rockpapershotgun.com/fortnite- is-finally-coming-to-linux-thanks-to-epic-rebuilding-easy-anti-cheat-though-steam-deck-support-is-still-in-the-wind # MultiplayerCompetitive # MultiplayerCooperative #…
2 more of the top 3 · 9 posts in this stretch
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So performative and weird. Just say you improved on what was there before.
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Agreed that test volume alone isn't a useful metric. What matters is whether the tests reflect real-world failure modes. We recently evaluated two AI classification approaches on 308 real messages. One achieved 94.48% accuracy, while another reached only 49.68%. That experience reinforced how important representative datasets, feedback loops, and…
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Gaming press and commentators mock Epic's 'vibe coded' framing
Outlets and social commentators seized on Epic's own description of the launcher as 'vibe coded', questioning whether a company positioning itself as a serious Steam rival should market an admission that it leaned on AI instead of engineering.
“"We vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher" because "programming is hard", announce company we're somehow supposed to see as a serious Steam competitor…”
— Rock Paper Shotgun -
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Orgs using vibe coded as a sales pitch, Lord. “Programming is hard,” Epic says in a blog post. “So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher” 💀 https://www. theverge.com/games/1010751/epi c-games-launcher-vibe-coded-ai-linux
1 more of the top 2 · 2 posts in this stretch
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El de @ gamingonlinux lo ha probado y usa GE-Proton. ¿Quién se iba a imaginar un lanzador de Epic oficial? xD https://www. gamingonlinux.com/2026/10/epic -games-launcher-preview-arrives-native-linux-support-fortnite-for-linux-is-coming-and-upgraded-easy-anti-cheat/
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Epic announces Fortnite for Linux and rebuilt anti-cheat
Alongside the launcher, Epic said it is rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC Linux v2) and working with distro maintainers to eventually bring Fortnite to Linux, with Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian supported first; Steam Deck support is not yet enabled.
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5 outlets first by Mastodon, 2d ago · also GamesBeat, Thurrott, The Verge, GamingOnLinux · read ↗
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2 outlets first by OC3D, 2d ago · also Phoronix · read ↗
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Epic Games just openly said it vibe coded its launcher
2 more of the top 3 · 11 posts in this stretch
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Absolutely jawdropping to see Epic, once renowned for their engine prowess, literally opening a PR announcement with “Programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher” — Especially given the dearth of features in the EGS compared to Steam.
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today in tim sweeney https:// store.epicgames.com/news/epic- games-launcher-preview
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Epic unveils AI-'vibe coded' launcher preview
Epic Games announced a redesigned PC games launcher in preview for Windows, Mac and Linux, saying it was built faster by having AI agents write and review the code — a company blog post stated 'Programming is hard... so, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher.'
“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.”
— Epic Games -
10 outlets first by TechPowerUp, 2d ago · also Neowin, Inven Global, Wccftech, Dexerto, PC Gamer, Epic Games Store +3 · read ↗
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8 outlets first by Video Games Chronicle, 2d ago · also Rock Paper Shotgun, Digital Trends, Siliconera, Tom's Hardware, OC3D, Polygon +1 · read ↗
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Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by Eurogamer.net, 2d ago · also Eurogamer, Ars Technica
3 more headlines
- Epic throws shade at Steam, admits to vibe-coding the new Epic Games Launcher with AI "to be faster than the other guy" Eurogamer · 2d ago
- "Programming is hard": Epic Games leans on "vibe coding" for its new Launcher app Ars Technica · 2d ago
- Epic says its new vibe-coded Epic Games Launcher is faster than Steam Ars Technica · 2d ago
and 4 smaller pieces
What people are saying 12 voices from 5 sites · best of 132 · verbatim
- Has Valve's faster-boot update actually rolled out to all users, or is it still being tested by some?
- Is Valve itself quietly using AI tools for this and other optimizations?
- Today
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🎮 Epic Games' new vibe coded launcher has arrived in preview for Linux, Windows, and macOS, claiming 1.8x faster startup than Steam. Fortnite is finally coming to Linux via the new client thanks to Easy Anti-Cheat V2. https:// alternativeto.net/news/2026/10 /epic-games-introduces-new-vibe-coded-launcher-and-confirms-fortnite-is-coming-to-linux/
- Yesterday
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also to add context to this, they’re trying to gin up excitement about their implementation of AI across the board in their company/development cycle. all the while forgetting the headache that SEGA is facing for using AI in their remastering of Shogun2, which actually made the games worse. essentially they offered fans a $40 inferior version and…
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> No Discussion forums and community hubs> No User-written text reviews> No Community-created guides and walkthroughs>No Screenshot, clip, and artwork sharingI can’t believe they don’t have the resource to bring these features to their launcher, they actively refuse to make it a tool for communities.It must be a way to buy game and launch them…
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Ah thank you for being specific about Steam's update not being released yet. It seems that people are saying that Steam opens faster than epic games launcher today, right now, which is not the case. In fact, from completely closed launchers, I can launch Unreal Engine (which launches from Epic Games Launcher), then launch FreeCAD, and both will…
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It’s about recognising that competition is what keeps markets healthy I think this viewpoint is naive at this point in time. Instead of competing most companies cut out their own slice and then work together with their "competitors" to keep prices high so they still maintain large profit margins. Then they use their massive wealth to lobby or take…
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I actually think that vibe coding lends itself well to stuff with really strict type systems. When you use Claude Code, it basically works on a loop until it gets something "right". A type system allows for part of the "right" criteria to be baked into the compilation, giving a hard block if it doesn't at least pass that.I've had reasonably good…
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All I can think with this whole situation is how much time is wasted by people getting angry and defensive on behalf of a Valve. It's almost like people have a parasocial relationship with the application itself.That's not even getting to some of the "missing" features.No Community marketplace for in-game itemsNo Direct player-to-player item…
- Oct 14
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Hold on. @theverge.com says Epic vibe coded its new launcher because "programming is hard." Agents wrote and reviewed all the code, and Epic brags it has "advanced digital commerce technology such as a shopping cart." Morty, AI reinvented the basket, and it still ships with bugs. (burp) day288.008
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Der neue Epic Games Launcher läuft in der Preview erstmals nativ unter Linux – unterstützt werden Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Fedora 43 und Debian 12 oder neuer. Noch fehlt aber einiges, und bei Fortnite hängt weiter alles an Easy Anti-Cheat. # EpicGames # Linux # Gaming https:// nrdly.de/d/650-neuer-epic-laun cher-laeuft-auf-linux-aber-wann-folgt-fortnite
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Easy Anti-Cheat being rebuilt for Linux in EAC Linux v2. Planned for pilot in Fortnite first “Once we've validated EAC v2's effectiveness, we'll make it available to more game developers so they can bring their multiplayer games to Linux players too” https://onlineservices.epicgames.com/ ... [image]
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NEW EPIC GAMES LAUNCHER REVEAL (Preview expected very soon) SPEED (vs Steam): • Startup → 5.47s vs 10.07s (1.8x faster) • Library Load → 0.36s vs 0.42s (1.2x faster) • Opens the Store 3x faster • Switches tabs almost instantly LAYOUT & SOCIAL: • One simple frame for Store, Library & Develop • You...
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Fortnite is coming to Linux on the Launcher To bring Fortnite to Linux, we are rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and 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.