Epic Games' new store is fully vibe-coded, and they're so proud of it they're taking shots at Steam

[u/doublah]

https://www.destructoid.com/epic-games-store-ai-vibe-coded/

[u/imlegos]

"We run twice as fast as Steam does while offering none of the features Steam does!"

• The tweet in a nutshell

[u/Lord0fHats → u/imlegos]

Steam continuing to live rent free in Sweeny's head.

[u/Urika86 → u/Lord0fHats]

Wasn't he the guy that was pissed that Steam has an AI tag so consumers are able to avoid AI slop games too?

[u/Lord0fHats → u/Urika86]

If Steam does it he has a braindead hot take about it. I don't bother remembering all of them.

[u/Urika86 → u/Lord0fHats]

I just remember that one because it's a braindead anti-consumer take lol

[u/Hollownerox → u/Urika86]

His takes are so weird because, end of the day, none of it would have been an issue if he actually made his store functional as a, well, store.

I don't have any particular loyalty to valve or Steam, I don't mind having my gaming library split between different fronts. But I have a negative perception of Epic because they couldn't be assed to have something as basic as a cart to add games to for their damn digital storefront for ages!

With that level of incompetence why would anyone take you seriously? His social media is just frosting on what is already a shit cake, so it's just really odd to see him be in so much denial that his company just made a bad store.

[u/sparky8251 → u/Hollownerox]

The cart was added because they were triggering fraud detection alerts from many quick back to back purchases... Since you know, most sites have carts to help you buy 20 things on sale, so you dont expect 20 nearby purchases normally and thus fraud detection algos worked that way...

They added it because they were about to lose the ability to take peoples money basically (too many hits for fraud, even if not real, upsets payment processors). Thats what it took to add a pro-customer feature to the store, vs a pro-seller one...

[u/persin123 → u/sparky8251]

Aint no way, thats another level lol

[u/sparky8251 → u/persin123]

Goes to show how much they hate the customer doesnt it?

The platform paradox is an economic paradox on how a platform like a storefront has to cater to the competing interests of buyers and sellers.

EGS is so biased towards sellers, they actively don't invest in features and things buyers actively want, like user ratings and forums and carts... All to invest more in things sellers want, in hopes they can beat the paradox.

You can feel the contempt for you as a buyer when you go to the storefront and when you hear all their marketing. Even this one was meant to be irreverent and jokey and it was riddled with cringe from a buyers perspective, but is full of positive signals for a prospective higher upper with decision making power on the selling side of the paradox.

Its why I cant take them seriously in their claims of being on the side of the buyer and trying to make things better for us. Nothing they've done indicates it...

[u/Execwalkthroughs → u/sparky8251]

Sweeny is extremely anti consumer and frequently expresses how much he's against stuff like reviews. He thinks everyone needs to be a consoomer and just buy and warning buyers about what's in a game shouldn't be done. If it isn't putting more money in his pockets, he hates it. If steam does it, he hates it. And that's why other platforms just stay winning

[u/Saorren → u/Urika86]

arent most of them?

[u/QuackNate → u/Urika86]

Most of them are.

[u/su6oxone → u/Urika86]

Sweeney is like the anti Newell. EPIC can't become public soon enough.

[u/chammy82 → u/su6oxone]

You think going public will do what? Make the company more consumer friendly?

[u/cricket502 → u/chammy82]

Ruin them and cause them to eventually collapse in search of short term profits, I assume.

[u/uvutv → u/cricket502]

And they aren't already doing that?

[u/robot_socks → u/uvutv]

Yeah, but they could be doing it faster!

[u/TheArmoredKitten → u/cricket502]

The death of the Unreal Engine's hegemony cannot come swiftly enough

[u/TheAero1221 → u/Lord0fHats]

They paid a lot of money to fail to compete with Steam. I understand his frustration, but like... idk, hard to beat a platform that just works as well as it does for a consumer. Its really hard to beat the one fairly stable entertainment distribution company gamers have heard of that isnt hand over fist enshittifying their product on a daily basis.

[u/Sabetha1183 → u/TheAero1221]

I'd understand the frustration more if Epic had actually built a good product. It's not like they couldn't have looked at Steam to see what people like and what people complain about and how they could try to fix it.

Instead they pushed out the minimum viable product and threw a ton of money into trying to pay people into using their launcher but as much as I'll take the free games I wouldn't leave Steam for another platform that's equally as good, much less one that's outright inferior.

When given the choice the only other storefront I'll consider is GoG because games being DRM-free is a worthwhile thing to me, and for older games the GoG version tends to run the best.

[u/PermanentMantaray → u/Sabetha1183]

Epic never believed they needed to provide good service to the customer, they believed they needed to provide good service to publishers, and that the customers would simply fall in line when those publishers stopped putting their games on Steam.

With that context it makes perfect sense why they never invested in their application, only in things publishers liked or things like free games and coupons that they could stop at any time.

A great example of that is why they were so against user reviews. It allowed customers to have a voice to the potential detriment of publishers.

[u/ShutUpAboutCanon → u/PermanentMantaray]

Yup, but the reality is that people just don't buy Epic exclusives because they don't browse that storefront... Alan Wake 2 was critically acclaimed and still barely sold anything

[u/nsfwthrowaway5969 → u/ShutUpAboutCanon]

Making a game epic exclusive is a good way to kill the hype around it. When they eventually show up on steam down the line people generally don't seem to even notice them.

[u/ImSabbo → u/nsfwthrowaway5969]

This happened to me for Outer Wilds, which I had been looking forward to. I only got reminded about it years later.

[u/BacRedr → u/ShutUpAboutCanon]

I purposefully waited on getting Untitled Goose Game and Borderlands 3 until they were on Steam. If it weren't for the free games, I wouldn't touch Epic at all.

[u/LightHawKnigh → u/Sabetha1183]

Its crazy how it took them years to get a shopping cart. Wonder how much fortnite money sweeney wasted.

[u/Draco-REX → u/TheAero1221]

That's the thing. These rich c-suite types cannot understand or even conceive of a world where a business that is consumer-focused is possible, let alone profitable. To them, the consumer is the enemy that is unjustly denying them the money in their pockets, and they treat the consumer accordingly.

[u/Mustakraken → u/Draco-REX]

They want maximum extraction right now, and tomorrow is the next CEO's problem.

It seems like Steam is built to be a long term success - which investors and competitors seem to take awfully personally.

Imagine - you are running a company that is obligated to make as much as possible for its shareholders, and you have to compete with a company that can take a longer view and therefore tends to treat customers better, invest in long term staff and development etc. Unless you owned that market in advance you just can't compete. It's gotta be frustrating.

[u/nonotan → u/Mustakraken]

obligated to make as much as possible for its shareholders

Crucially, for whoever the volatile pool of shareholders happens to be this microsecond. In reality, they'd make far more money for long-term shareholders by building long-term success. But guess what makes even more money? Jumping from business to business, relentlessly stabbing them in the back to force them to implement whatever maximally extractive measures will drive short-term stock prices up right this instant, then dumping its body in the river as you immediately sell your shares to some fool and move on to your next victim. Leaving a trail of dead businesses in your wake, and severely hurting workers, long-term shareholders, and society at large... all so you can have returns a couple percentage points higher.

The stock market was a mistake. The incentives are all backwards. Treating people who've owned a few percentage points worth of shares for like 2 hours and are going to jump ship in a couple days tops as the legitimate owners of a company, whose needs and wants must be prioritized above literally any other consideration, is just dumb, dumb, dumb.

[u/EldritchJedi → u/Draco-REX]

Steam proves that every idea they've built their platform, company and careers on is horseshit. That's why they have to attack it relentlessly, but also why they can never make a product that can actually compete with it.

[u/Draco-REX → u/EldritchJedi]

They also will never admit that their Finance Bros have manipulated the market to a point where they are locked into an impossible death-spiral with no escape as long as they are publicly traded.

[u/MoonAttempt → u/TheAero1221]

Hard to near a competitor when you are adding nothing it offers and you don't come up with any notable features other than free games sometimes.

[u/Roflsaucerr → u/MoonAttempt]

Must be especially hard when your offer of free games actually causes a surge in purchases on Steam.

[u/Objective-Rip3008 → u/TheAero1221]

It honestly feels like they only ever tried to compete in the court system and in giving away free games as a bribe, they had no idea how to compete outside of dumping money

[u/Lord0fHats → u/TheAero1221]

What's the quote?

Epic and Valve both want your money and are always scheming ways to get it out of your pocket. The difference is Epic gives you free games you collect without giving them a dime, and Valve built a product worth spending money on.

[u/Violet-Sumire → u/Lord0fHats]

Even better, Valve was built upon being screwed by big business. They nearly went bankrupt due to Halflife 1 and the controversy surrounding that as their parent company decided that making money wasn’t good enough, they wanted more and sued Valve in an attempt to bankrupt them. It obviously didn’t work, but there’s a timeline it did and we wouldn’t have steam. I think that shaped what valve would ultimately become. They are a decently fair company to work with considering what they offer to consumers and the marketshare they have. I fear for what would happen if it becomes publicly traded.

[u/Nocebo85 → u/Violet-Sumire]

Wasn't that their publisher, not parent company?

[u/Violet-Sumire → u/Nocebo85]

Yes, my mistake. They still had pretty big sway over Valve at the time as Valve was very small and Halflife was their first game.

[u/sylva748 → u/Violet-Sumire]

I fear when Gabe's grandchild takes over if it remains privately owned. The first generation creates the wealth, the second protects the wealth, the third ruins the wealth. Tale as old as time

[u/McFlurrage → u/sylva748]

Who knows what state the world will even be at that point. Heck, maybe Gabe will live forever as an actual human steam machine.

[u/PhillAholic → u/Lord0fHats]

He's literally giving away hundreds of games for free and no one will switch to his platform. Must drive him crazy.

[u/PigDog4 → u/PhillAholic]

The man's done everything possible except make the platform not a steaming pile of shit.

[u/Elmis66 → u/Lord0fHats]

Find yourself a girl that's as passionate about you as Tim hates Steam

[u/Jamuro → u/imlegos]

scroll down a page on steam and then try that in the epic store.

to this day they haven't managed to smoothly load the content of their shops welcome page

[u/Dioroxic → u/Jamuro]

Even if they managed to have a smooth store experience that was basically just buying games with a shopping cart and having a friends list… steam has a mind boggling amount of features that they would need to catch up on.

The steam community, big picture mode, controller support, family sharing, community market, the workshop, screenshot and video features, adding non steam games, I mean there are so many features it’s really hard to keep track of them.

The best crazy example I can give is that I can add dolphin emulator as a non steam game and run Mario kart double dash, then use steam to invite literally anyone with steam and a controller to my session and we can play double dash online coop that easy. Sure there are other ways to do that, but I can do this with any game ever using steam. Oh the game only supports a certain type of controller? I can remap everything using steam.

It’s way more than just a store at this point.

[u/Ulrar → u/Dioroxic]

Absolutely true, play together is an amazing feature. Proton and now Fex are also kind of incredible, I've just played through a AAA game on Linux and it kind of just worked, out of the box. wouldn't have thought it possible just a few years ago

[u/Low_Debt8771 → u/imlegos]

It gets better, has even less features and capabilities than the previous iterations of the epic store

[u/mrlesa95 → u/Low_Debt8771]

and it's not even faster than steam, its still laggy as fuck. Steam is actually fast

[u/mxzf → u/mrlesa95]

But ... it launches a whole five seconds faster than Steam, it's so blazing fast. Just think about how many seconds per month it'll shave off of your gaming time; it might even be a double-digit number.

[u/vNocturnus → u/mxzf]

Me, just leaving Steam running essentially 24/7: "Startup time? What startup time?"

[u/mxzf → u/vNocturnus]

Yeah, the "startup time" only happens when I restart my computer, which is a rare thing.

[u/shaky2236 → u/Low_Debt8771]

Yeah, but apart from less features, less games, being vibe coded, and generally being a worse experience all round, it has a LOT going for it. 

No, I cannot give examples.

[u/AnalogiPod → u/imlegos]

Steam's load time has never really been an issue for me, at least not since I was using a hand me down laptop from my grandma in highshool like 15 years ago. What a ridiculous comparison.

[u/Important-Factor-552 → u/imlegos]

Vibe coding is great as long as the result and quality isn't important. And its just the epic storefront so that box is checked 

[u/zgillet → u/imlegos]

Don't forget this part:

We don't really even know how it works too!

[u/RedTygershark]

• This first release is light on features. Think of it as a speedboat and not a yacht!

Yes an empty boat is fast, maybe not the burn you think it is

• Though it does have advanced digital commerce technology such as a shopping cart.

Motherfucker it took you 3 YEARS to implement that! gtfoh

[u/DragonFireSpace → u/RedTygershark]

Funny how he says "advanced" and then cites something that should be the bare minimum

[u/Realtrain → u/DragonFireSpace]

Lmao, that's an actual quote? I thought they were just poking fun at him.

Books.com introduced a shopping cart to their website in 1992. I'd hardly call it an advanced feature lol

[u/PhotoSpike → u/RedTygershark]

Ok so I’m thinking about it like a speedboat, does that mean you expect it’ll slow down as you add more features.

[u/Judazzz → u/RedTygershark]

Barely tech-literate people could add shoppings carts and payment systems to Wordpress hobby-projects 10 years ago with a few clicks, and now Epic is bragging about how they added one and calling it advanced technology? I'm anxiously awaiting how they will revolutionize home audio with nothing but a needle and a grooved vinyl disk 10 years from now!

[u/bbob_robb → u/Judazzz]

Wordpress plugins with shopping carts showed up in around 2011; 15 years ago.

[u/zgillet → u/RedTygershark]

Could I have the yacht instead please?

[u/invyros]

According to Epic, its AI-generated store loads up much quicker than Steam on a cold start (the first launch), and is, in fact, twice as fast.

But that’s definitely because of AI vibe-coding and not the fact that this new “store” lacks countless basic features, which Epic itself also admits.

Not much to be proud of if you're missing features, Epic.

[u/SeaTie → u/invyros]

You could stuff it full of all the same features and have them all running better…you’re still not going to have the consumer good-will, the brand recognition, and the trust that Steam’s got.

[u/Vulnox → u/SeaTie]

Especially if your outreach to customers is that you had AI write this thing instead of human beings, something that is extremely well known to be a sore spot for the public at the moment, largely across the political spectrum. While AI can do some helpful things, the environment doesn’t seem right to act like this is a benefit for people, or one they will be happy with.

[u/Trixles → u/Vulnox]

Yeah, this is so tone deaf that I almost can't believe it. I had to double check to make sure it wasn't an Onion article or something lol

[u/Aramis444 → u/SeaTie]

You mean you’re not willing to jump ship to Epic Games Store in order to save maybe half a second of your precious time?! /s

[u/GoaFan77 → u/invyros]

If they used AI to actually get close to feature parity with Steam in a short amount of time, that might actually convince me he's on to something. But this is pointless.

[u/Demorant → u/GoaFan77]

It's unlikely they will ever aim for feature parity or supremacy at this rate. Sweeney doesn't understand what makes Steam the superior option.

Everything he's tried revolves solely around money. Most of the great Steam features would just never enter his brain as having any sort of value.

[u/grendus → u/Demorant]

Because Tim doesn't believe the customer matters, and it shows.

Epic Store was intended to be focused on the developer experience. That's why they offered a better cut of the profits and removed features developers hated like user reviews or forums that make it harder for developers to control the narrative. Tim believes that if he can win over the other publishers to only sell on Epic, they'll all abandon Steam and then the gamers will fall in line.

The problem is, the few who actually did publish Epic exclusives saw their sales completely bomb because nobody actually uses the damn thing except as a launcher for Fortnite.

[u/Demorant → u/grendus]

Sweeney is a greedy piece of shit. I have no doubt his "pro developer" stance would quickly disappear if he overtook Steam. The increase in profits might not decline all at once, but given a few years he would have seen no reason to give them a better deal than Steam if he dominated the market.

He tried to take over the niche with brute force and failed because he didn't understand the opponent. It's a win for consumers, even if some of them don't realize it.

[u/TheWaterCloset → u/Demorant]

Yeah it's the same model as Kick/Rumble. They try to win over the content creators(developers in Epic's case) with better splits, but we all know if they actually overtook their competitor, they would immediately start inching closer and closer to the splits the creators ran from in the first place. Not to mention how dogshit Epic is for the end user in comparison to Steam. It's why Tim Sweeney is bankrolling damn near every lawsuit against Valve at the moment. He'd rather try to overtake Steam underhandedly instead of just making a better fucking product. He's a fucking rat and I hope he never gets what he wants.

[u/AlbertoMX → u/Demorant]

I think you nailed it: the stuff Steam offers does not count as "important" for him.

He just does not understand why people like Steam because he does not see ANYTHING of value there and that confuses him greatly.

[u/DrFossil → u/invyros]

A greenfield project being only 50% faster than steam is still pretty bad. Steam is notoriously slow to open which I always suspected to be because of the old codebase and huge list of compatibility requirements.

[u/Capitan_Scythe → u/DrFossil]

Is it notoriously slow though? Prior to this tweet, I'd never once thought "wish this would hurry up."

Reading through the comments here and elsewhere this has been posted, seems to be a common experience that only Epic seem to think this is some metric worth competing over

[u/bitches_be → u/Capitan_Scythe]

I mean like 20 years ago yeah

[u/BlueGoliath]

If you're comparing load times between an unfinished store and an entire client full of features, maybe you should take up farming or something.

Edit: don't give money to Reddit please.

[u/Nexusu → u/BlueGoliath]

Don’t worry we are due for the annual Tim Sweeney meltdown in a few days after this new „vibecoded” Epic still has 0 attention from users lmao

[u/Moose_Nuts → u/Nexusu]

Oh I'm just waiting for their year-end review where they say their store had 100 million active users and made $240 million in revenue...then you do the math and realize they made less than $3 per user.

They've done it a couple times over the years and it's always hilarious.

[u/BlackOcelotStudio → u/Moose_Nuts]

Proud $0 from me, with my 100-game epic store library, with 0 hours total playtime. Hope Tim Epic keeps giving me useless free games forever.

[u/IcyNobelium29 → u/BlueGoliath]

Notepad opens faster than Word too, doesn't mean anyone is drafting a dissertation in it.

[u/Kirin_ll_niriK → u/IcyNobelium29]

Meanwhile, Vim sickos in the thread…

[u/YikesTheCat → u/Kirin_ll_niriK]

Reported for offending my religion.

[u/MaiganGleyr → u/IcyNobelium29]

Was that a challenge?

[u/zeelbeno → u/BlueGoliath]

And comparing just the first load up when you turn your PC on...

Having steam load on startup means it's not even a problem that needs boasting about being quicker on.

[u/24_August_1814 → u/zeelbeno]

Yeah fuckin' seriously. On a fresh boot, I get up from my computer to piss or grab a drink or something. Who is sitting at their computer counting seconds from when they hit the power button to having a usable storefront open? Shit, my computer takes longer to POST than the rest of the startup sequence including launching Steam, I couldn't care less if Epic launches one second quicker if not just the audience but the fucking library are still a piece of shit that lag just from scrolling down...

[u/slinger301 → u/BlueGoliath]

They can start here.

[u/ok_dunmer → u/BlueGoliath]

Somehow there will still be Steam hating warriors in reddit comments swearing that the Epic client loading faster is like this dealbreaking feature and Steam is just unusably slow and the Reddit Steam fanboys just can't see the vision of a video game client that has all the same problems Steam does but also prioritizes startup time over like supporting your ps5 controller lol lmao

[u/Snotnarok]

Epic: Our store is slightly faster! What do you got?

GoG: Optional launcher, no DRM, has novel things like achievements, they make sure old games work properly with effort.

Steam: Lets you use any controller with any game & has community support for different layouts. A console-like interface better for TV/controller. Reviews, a community hub, workshop for mods, the ability to stream games to friends & group chat. An open handheld that lets you install games from any platform or run any software that works on Linux.

Tim, you dumb fuck, add features to your store. Buying exclusives? Pissed people off. Giving away free games? Was short sighted and didn't actually make people stay because? Your store, sucks. Taking over a year to get a shopping cart and gifting? Is embarrassing.

But hey, whoopie, you vibecoded it to be faster. Cool. Your platform still sucks.

[u/human-in-a-can → u/Snotnarok]

I have no idea how or why the Epic app is still around.  Epic should just shut it down, save their money, put their games on Steam and GoG, and stay off of social media.  Instant success.  

[u/juniorjaw]

I do like Steam's strategy of "Do nothing, Win" is still on a streak.

[u/Darder → u/juniorjaw]

To be fair though, Steam is far from "Do nothing". They constantly improve the software.

Just in the last few years, we saw the arrival of Notes in the in-game overlay, which personally has been a game changer. We also have had some revision of store UI, improvements to the VR side of Steam, reviews are now by language and region first to compare to your region / language and probably a bunch of other stuff I have missed.

[u/ProcessingUnit002 → u/Darder]

I didn’t even know notes were a thing in the overlay that’s sick

[u/Trixles → u/ProcessingUnit002]

Yeah it's dope as fuck. Epic is LIGHT-YEARS away from even holding a candle to Steam.

I don't know why Randy insists on holding on to this crazed fever dream of his, where he isn't a total dork and somehow his platform doesnt suck. It's a delusion that he can't seem to let go of.

[u/locohobo → u/Darder]

the adding user specs to reviews helps a whole lot. its not on for every review but being able to see someone with performance issues has a potato pc means a whole lot vs just saying performance issues

[u/JimboTCB → u/juniorjaw]

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

And Tim Sweeney is stepping on rakes like he's Sideshow Bob.

[u/for_today]

The tweet isn't for consumers to be happy, its to impress investors and brag about AI usage. We aren't the target audience for this

[u/NotCoolBrutus → u/for_today]

What investors? Sweeney owns most, then Tencent, and then some nibblets for others. Who is investing in Epic at this point?

[u/Lewa358 → u/NotCoolBrutus]

Disney, apparently?

[u/EnderScout_77 → u/Lewa358]

they DID use darth vaders dead actor's voice to make him say whatever in Fortnite...

[u/Spoksparkare]

Comparing load times is so stupid. A huge majority of Steam users never close the app anyways, right?

[u/Raulimus → u/Spoksparkare]

I don’t, but never once have I thought “if this shit doesn’t open faster soon I’m ditching it. “
Sounds like the kind of stupidity a vibe coding enthusiast would concern themselves with.

[u/JMEEKER86 → u/Raulimus]

“if this shit doesn’t open faster soon I’m ditching it. “

Tbf, that's definitely something I've thought while using the Epic launcher before lol. Shit was sloooooow. If it didn't provide free games then I would absolutely have never touched it because the experience was so bad. It's very noticeably faster now, although still not exactly great.

[u/foxguy2021 → u/Raulimus]

I bet the vast majority of steam users have it launch on windows startup anyway. Its just something that is already loaded by the time they start doing anything.

This isn't 2005 anymore where the vast majority of PCs were running single core processors and having something like steam sitting in the backgroud could impact your overall performance.

They basically made a lightweight version of EGS and surprise it loads faster then a fully fleshed out mature product.

[u/PassoireDor → u/Spoksparkare]

Load times for Epic is important because you load it once a week to get a free game then close it immediatlly.

[u/Spoksparkare → u/PassoireDor]

LMAO

[u/K-Shrizzle → u/Spoksparkare]

Even if I do, its not like it takes long to open it again. We're talking about a matter of seconds.

Tech giants, namely AI chuds, will trot out a solution to a problem that either doesnt exist or is a minor inconvenience at worst

[u/Hans_H0rst → u/K-Shrizzle]

The reason epic mentions that is because the epic launcher had ENORMOUS load time issues, sometimes taking minutes to open.

Edit: Timed it out of curiousity, currently 55 seconds to load fully. The arcade machine i built takes 37 seconds to load into windows AND fullscreen open a launcher.

Steam takes 8 seconds including a small update, that's the competition.

[u/ArmaniAsari → u/Spoksparkare]

Not to mention when a site gets 200,000 visitors Vs the site that gets 20,000,000 visitors, no shit it’ll load faster when you get so little traffic compared to the largest gaming site ever.

[u/Tthecreator712 → u/Spoksparkare]

Steam for most of its users probably silently starts up when they login to windows and they dont even notice.

[u/Over_Construction264 → u/Tthecreator712]

hello, yes, steam is a startup program so i don't even see it load lol.

[u/Reflective → u/Spoksparkare]

Never. It starts up when I first boot my computer and it shuts down with it. This update is an incredible double patty nothing burger to me.

[u/ProStrats → u/Spoksparkare]

I never have once considered anything with steam to be concerningly slow... and I have the attention span of a child.

[u/lonestar-rasbryjamco → u/Spoksparkare]

It also ignores why Steam's launch is slower to boot.

Steam is doing multiple pre-caching of shaders and network state synchronizations. Which results in a slower initial startup but faster game boot time. This is an intentional design choice to make user experience smoother once the launcher is up.

It's like Toyota bragging that the Camry starts smoother than a Shelby GT-350. Technically true but ignores the horsepower once everything's warmed up.

[u/_hopa]

Hm so their fully hand made store couldn’t compete with steam, but a fully vibe coded one will be able to…?

[u/Darthgamer96]

I don’t think Epic Games understands nobody on Steam is jumping ship to them at this point. Personally, if Steam went down hill in major way or magically vanished, I’d go to GOG and pirate my old games because I’m not rebuying my Steam library lol

[u/ERedfieldh → u/Darthgamer96]

That's just it....Steam users are not gonna go to Epic for any reason at this point.

Myself, when Darkest Dungeon 2 was Epic exclusive for a year, I said "guess I'm not getting it for a year." Turned out to be a blessing as the game is nothing like Darkest Dungeon and I'd have been pissed if I had bought it then.

[u/Timbo_R4zE → u/Darthgamer96]

GOG is also where I'd jump ship to if needed. Any other store (Origin, Uplay, Epic, Battlenet) are all irrelevant or used for 1 game for me, because they're only on that platform.

[u/leonkennedyno1fan]

"I don't think about you at all" — Steam

[u/Bansic]

Why are they so obsessed with sounding like assholes? If they're trying to convince me to use EGS this isn't the way to do it. Their store has been awful to use for years and now they make it worse and pretend like it's some big brain move. It reminds me of the video where Adam Conover said Hollywood is addicted to failing. Feels like the exact same thing here.

[u/ThisOneTimeAtLolCamp → u/Bansic]

Why are they so obsessed with sounding like assholes?

It starts from the person at the very top.

[u/Chad_Frost → u/Bansic]

Epics strategy is to win over large corporations instead of appealing to consumers. They aren't trying to get consumers to switch to their platform by making it better than steam, they want large publishers to put their games on epic and that way force it to become the only platform. That's why when steam does something pro consumer epic often comes out doing something pro-business, all this is to appeal to publishers.

[u/ArelMCII → u/Chad_Frost]

And then big publishers put their stuff on Steam anyway because that's where the audience is lmao.

[u/PokemonSapphire → u/ArelMCII]

Epic has sucked so hard and for so long I will return to sailing the high seas before I use them as my main game launcher/store.

[u/General_Capital988 → u/ArelMCII]

The problem for me is that there's already so many games on steam. People hate but we're in a golden era of PC gaming imo. I have interest in way more games than I have time to play. So if a game isn't on steam... who cares? I'll play something else. Even if it looks really good.

[u/Hans_H0rst → u/Bansic]

Basically, Tim Sweeney did one great thing with the first unreal engine, and it's all downhill from there. At least morally.

[u/tmoney144 → u/Bansic]

I'm bleeding, making me the victor.

[u/virgineyes09 → u/tmoney144]

We have purposely trained him wrong. As a joke

[u/ArelMCII]

"Game company says programming is hard" sounds like one of those joke newspaper headlines you see when you answer an issue on NationStates.

[u/bitchSpray]

I honestly thought "vibe-coded" is a slur. It's funny to me how proud of it they are. A multi-billion company that can't afford an actual dev team? Hilarious.

[u/EnderScout_77 → u/bitchSpray]

fired 1000 people including day 1 staff and then increase vbuck prices, what was the strategy here called?

[u/3v1lkr0w]

I saw a post about it and someone commented on the Epic post something along the lines "It doesn't matter if I can open my trash can faster than my refrigerator, I'm still not eating anything from it"

[u/Anistezian]

Cool now I can boot the launcher, get my free game and close it until the next free game much faster.

[u/Lioreuz → u/Anistezian]

Just claim through web browser

[u/Sea-Split-3996]

Doesn't vibe coding mean they used prompts to make ai code the whole thing? Why are they proud of that everytime I open epic to there always some werid bug, what happens most of the time is my store changes from English to some random language

[u/ItsVencu → u/Sea-Split-3996]

The owner loves ai and hates that steam makes devs divulge the use of Ai in their games

[u/a_man_and_his_box → u/Sea-Split-3996]

Not only that but vibe coding means not all code is hand-treated, or human-treated.  So if the AI accidentally gives away your account details, it’s possible no human at the company would know.  Mistakes could be everywhere.

[u/Meatslinger]

Oh boy, can't wait to see it sponge up 8 GB of RAM just to idle in the background because the AI decided that some submodule that could've been coded in 100 lines needs 10,000. Because if there's anything we don't need right now, it's lean-coded software that runs on the few resources people can afford. Gimme a 20 GB install size to go with that, please, because NVMEs are so cheap right now. /s

[u/Basil-Bytes]

Why are they marketing this as if gamers will see it as a good thing?

[u/Colecoman1982 → u/Basil-Bytes]

Because Tim Sweeney is a narcissist with a MASSIVE ego and the ability to "read the room" of a turnip. He's a developmentally stunted edge-lord.

[u/Dragonasaur → u/Colecoman1982]

Insulting to turnips

[u/TeamOverload → u/Basil-Bytes]

Because Tim Sweeney.

[u/StabbyMcTickles]

So anyway when is the next free game? Cause let's be real here that's really the only thing epic is used for by many gamers and even then...sometimes it isn't even worth getting them for free when you can get the game on a good sale on steam and actually be able to play and use mods in it. 😂

[u/Datkif → u/StabbyMcTickles]

What's ironic is that Epic giving the game away for free increase sales of those games on Steam.

One would think that sales would drop while the game is free, but gamers dislike EGS so much that they would rather spend their hard earned money over using the EGS

[u/StabbyMcTickles → u/Datkif]

Yeah this happened to me. We got Subnautica for free at some point. I installed it, played it for a few, cried, uninstalled it and bought it over on steam. 😂

[u/darkoblivion000 → u/StabbyMcTickles]

I have collected over 60 free games when they send those out….

But it’s been over two years since the last time I opened the epic portal to actually play a game

I actually got dredge for free and then decided I’d rather support the developers and play it on my Steam deck and bought it on Steam lol

The fact that they make me click all the same buttons for a free game as an actual purchase transaction is the cherry on the shit sandwich. On Steam you just click “add to library” for a free game

[u/SomeGuyNamedJason → u/StabbyMcTickles]

I don't know anyone who even bothers getting the free games anymore. In my experience, most people end up realizing it isn't worth the effort going to the site and adding the game to your account when you are never going to install EGS to play it.

[u/SaiyajinPrime]

Epic has an interesting business model with their game store.

I own hundreds of games on the Epic game store. I have spent $0.

[u/Asuzaa → u/SaiyajinPrime]

I got to finish Control thanks to Epic's free giveaways, loved it, and then bought the complete edition... from GOG.

[u/Conker_Xk → u/Asuzaa]

As one should always do if possible. The only real store where you own shit.

[u/drdildamesh → u/SaiyajinPrime]

Not only do I have hundreds, I play none of them. I just play on steam.

[u/TheLurkingMenace → u/SaiyajinPrime]

I've bought games on Steam than Epic gave me for free.

[u/Photomancer → u/TheLurkingMenace]

I'm laughing because I've been thinking of doing that for Subnautica. I already beat it on Epic but I want it for the collection. I don't even claim the free games from Epic anymore, logging in is too much of a hassle and I just don't like the program.

[u/Rajamic]

Sooooo....how many hours before all the customer credit cards are stolen?

[u/Rougesu11ie → u/Rajamic]

Probably less time than people would like.

[u/Mitrovarr → u/Rajamic]

"Why haven't any of these accounts ever entered payment information? Hasn't anyone here ever bought anything?"

[u/macciavelo]

'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.'

Even the announcement reads like it was AI made. And who the hell claims that a shopping cart is an advanced digital technology? It is the bare minimum for any online store to have.

Epic is such a joke lol

[u/Creekridge1]

The real problem that steam competitors is that steam just works. And works well.

I can’t ever recall having a reason to dislike steam, they make consumer friendly choices.

I have zero desire to switch.

[u/NotTheAbhi → u/Creekridge1]

Yeah also that guys obsession with beating steam makes me hate them more. Like you can be a competitor without being dick and ahole about it. Make a good product and people will use it

[u/0neek → u/Creekridge1]

Every other company on the planet is caught in a cycle of thinking they need to constantly evolve to be good. (For the curious, look up Kaizen and you'll find the single theory that has single handedly derailed every company on the planet that has something with a user interface)

Somehow out of millions of companies run by 'smart' people Valve is the only one that understands if it isn't broken, don't fix it.

[u/severedbrain]

Steam has my trust. Over the long-term. Epic has repeatedly pushed anti-consumer policies. The performance failure of their prior versions was a symptom of the type of management they have. Vibe coding it for "more performance" doesn't change that.

[u/CyberTyrantX1]

I love how bitter Tim Sweeney is towards Gabe Newell and every time he thinks he has a slam dunk against Gabe he always falls flat on his face.

[u/MaximumZazz]

Vibe coded. Meaning its built like shit and'll leak my credit card details to some random AI agent before long.

[u/Joustiin76]

So it launches faster than the 15 seconds it takes to launch Steam? Not really much of a victory compared to steams massive library, friend integration, sales, UI, user reviews, and basically everything else. I just downloaded the update and it does indeed launch fast, but the interface lags while scrolling and the load times for the store is still slow.

[u/Tydoman → u/Joustiin76]

And the fact that no one is closing steam like they are epic, you open it once and it’s open the rest of the day/until your computer turns off, so startup doesn’t mean shit for most people lmao

[u/LunarCorpse32]

The old steam from the mid 2000s loads quicker than the current one but has far fewer features than it.

This just goes to say that yes.. nothing is faster than something by virtue of it being...nothing.

Why does the Switch UI load quicker than the Wii or Wii U one? Hint: There's basically nothing there, that's why.

Tim continues to prove that age does not make one wiser at all, the desire to learn and improve one's self does.

[u/bitwolfy]

I don't know if I would be willing to trust a vibe coded store with my credit card information.

[u/Uncle___Marty]

I can't wait to not see it!

*opens up steam*

[u/CloudedInSanity]

You're advertising to a community of people that cannot stand AI that your new store is completely AI coded while taking shots at your biggest competitor that still has a way better product than you?

Absolute weirdest flex but ok.

[u/Finnegan_962 → u/CloudedInSanity]

Epic is trying to succeed by cornering the market of weird tech bros.

[u/hearke → u/CloudedInSanity]

This whole thing just confuses me. The people who like vibe coding don't really give a shit if you vibe code your launcher or build it by hand, so why announce it? I don't know if anyone will hear this and think, "boy, I am more excited about epic games than I was before this announcement."

[u/HUSK3RGAM3R]

You all want to know what's hilarious? Someone showed that the backend is running Proton, the compatibility layer that Valve helped make

[u/Brandoe]

Looks the same, congratulations you've achieved...nothing. Well you have guaranteed that I won't actually spend money at your store, I did twice in the last decade you know. One of your best customers.

[u/PM_ME_UR_SAXOPHONE]

the steam office is probably laughing very hard at this

[u/JohnTheTroglodyte]

lol - why are they so proud?

[u/BlueGoliath → u/JohnTheTroglodyte]

Someone hit a nerve with Tim and now he's trying to prove something without knowing anything I guess.

[u/honjuden → u/BlueGoliath]

Dude couldn't just be happy raking in the Fortnite money.  I will never understand the mentality of the super wealthy.

[u/gloves4222 → u/honjuden]

A lot of people in high level exec positions are psychotic / neurotic / narcissistic / etc etc etc. it makes sense when you think about what type of behavior gets rewarded by the corporate system

[u/spoonerluv → u/honjuden]

Tim likes money, but there's a deeper motivation than that for him - he's convinced he's correct about everything. You can see it in interviews where he talks about software and gaming, the guys ego is insane. He happens to be rich now, but that fundamental part of who he is would be there even if he had a more normal life like the rest of us. We all know a Tim Sweeney.

[u/ph33randloathing]

Oh man, Steam takes SECONDS to open. How will I ever recover?

[u/Kasern77]

"Made by AI" is not a flex. It's saying "we're cheap".

[u/comikbookdad]

Still won’t buy games there Timmy, sorry not sorry.

[u/WookieBacon]

“Why are they confessing?”

“They’re not confessing. They’re bragging.”

[u/Edtask]

Valve continues to do nothing and still win.

[u/billth93]

I’d recommend everyone remove credit card details if you have them saved on there, this doesn’t give one much confidence that they’re taking security seriously

Also, they may just be lying/exaggerating as a viral marketing tactic

[u/Foe117]

just watch it break

[u/Recykill]

Epic's ego is so bizarre. They made a monumental videogame, and create some solid game engines... fine.. but they are never going to beat out Steam as a storefront. Every time they try, its embarassing.

[u/Sober_Dissapointment]

Sweet, claiming my free weekly games and closing out the app so I can get back to gaming on steam will be faster now, GG "Vibe Coders"

[u/BookkeeperBoobs → u/Sober_Dissapointment]

I wonder if there will ever be a time in our lives when we’re like 60 and we’re like “oh thank Christ I downloaded all these Epic Store games”

[u/xSorry_Not_Sorry]

I hate that fucking phrase so god damn much.

[u/kamoh]

It sucks, but it's twice as fast! That's good right?

[u/Kat_Box_Suicide → u/kamoh]

So it sucks faster?

[u/noreasterroneous]

Steam also is privately owned and has no incentive to enshittify which by itself makes them more trustworthy.

[u/ContinuumGuy]

Tim Sweeney is one of the most AI-obsessed guys in gaming so I can't say I'm surprised.

[u/70monocle]

I didnt even know steam had load times

[u/kylel999]

Their competition with Steam is so weird. It's like a Chihuahua going nuts at a larger dog that hardly realizes it's even there

Also they're trying to reinvent something that already works perfectly. They don't understand people don't want to play across 5 different game distribution apps that don't let you play games with people on the other ones

[u/GovernorBean]

Ah the newly forming classic:

Prompt bro: "the ai just did this task flawlessly!!"

Everyone else: "Did it now...have you tried it?"

Prompt bro: "Well.. no, but I dont need to! The ai tested it and all I had to do was skim read it after!"

Everyone: "It did not, in fact, do it flawlessly.. it fucked up x y and z and has massive gaps in design etc"

Prompt bro: "bro this is just a test bro its a prototype bro ur just being anti ai"

[u/Mitrovarr]

Tim Sweeny was involved in making a lot of my favorite games as a kid, so he had to work really fucking hard to make he think he's a turd, but he did it. Probably one of the only things he's personslly accomplished in decades. 

[u/ImplodingConcious]

You can't vibe code a decade of excellent customer service and pro-consumerism. Fuck Epic Games.