Image credit: Epic Games

Days after a report emerged about them imposing an "AI-first" production model on the devs of a new Disney shooter, Epic Games have released a new version of their launcher in preview form. It's been "vibe coded" with aim of making it "faster than the other guy". That other guy is Steam, something the yacht gag in the second paragraph of the announcement post makes even more obvious.

"Programming is hard," reads Epic's official announcement post about this new launcher being available to preview. "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. This first release is light on features. Think of it as a speedboat and not a yacht! Though it does have advanced digital commerce technology such as a shopping cart."

No, seriously, that's what they wrote. The social posts about it are similarly toned.…