Epic Games has heard the complaints. For years its desktop launcher drew fire for sluggish performance and a bare-bones feature set that left it trailing Valve’s offering. Now the company is acting on a scale not seen before. Slides from a recent Unreal Fest presentation outline a ground-up rebuild of the Epic Games Store client that promises dramatic speed gains and a host of capabilities users have requested since the platform launched in 2018.
The numbers stand out. Launcher V2 will deliver an average cold start five times faster than the current version. Restoring the app from the system tray could run 6.5 times quicker. Those figures come from testing on high-end hardware, including a 32-core AMD Threadripper processor with an RTX A6000 graphics card and 128GB of RAM. Yet an Epic employee later told community members the gains hold across the 16 most common machine specs the team evaluated. The new launcher rips, the employee said, no matter the rig.
But speed forms only part of the story. The roadmap stretches across the next 12 months and breaks into three phases. Imminent changes include storefront rearchitecture, in-store patch notes for third-party titles, cross-region gifting, and chunked installation support for Fortnite. A private beta of Launcher V2 sits in this first wave. Public release follows, bringing player profiles with avatars, written user reviews, improved search, and a personalized home screen with better recommendations. Later items cover universal controller support for Xbox and PlayStation pads, third-party community forums, and a broader storefront redesign.
The shift marks a clear response to internal candor as much as external pressure. Last month Epic Games Store vice president Steven Allison told Eurogamer the current launcher “sucks” and called it “really slow.” He pledged a year of meaningful upgrades. At Unreal Fest presenters echoed the sentiment. “Every developer in this room and every player we have has experienced challenges with the current launcher – it’s time for a change,” one slide read, according to Video Games Chronicle.
And the technical foundation is changing too. The existing launcher was built with Unreal Engine, a decision one source close to the project described as a bad idea that Epic has now abandoned. The new client moves away from that technology. Details on the replacement stack remain scarce, though some observers point to possible Rust adoption given other recent Epic tools. Whatever the choice, the goal centers on responsiveness and lower resource use. Users have long griped about the app feeling heavy even when idle.
Player profiles represent one of the more visible additions. They will display banners, levels, bios, achievements, favorite games, recently played titles, current activity, and last-played timestamps. For the first time players can see at a glance what friends are doing without switching apps. Written reviews arrive alongside them, letting buyers share detailed feedback rather than simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down signals. Personalized recommendations on the home screen should surface titles based on past behavior instead of generic promotions.
Universal controller support expands input options beyond the current limited setup. The feature targets both popular Xbox and PlayStation pads and promises better navigation for users who prefer gamepads over mouse and keyboard. In-store patch notes give developers a direct channel to communicate updates, bug fixes, and balance changes without forcing players to hunt external forums or social posts. Cross-region gifting removes geographic barriers that have frustrated international friend groups. Chunked installation for Fortnite should reduce download sizes and speed initial setup for that title in particular.
These additions address gaps that have persisted despite Epic’s aggressive moves elsewhere. The company has handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in free games, struck exclusivity deals, and built a large user base. Revenue has grown. Yet many PC gamers still treat the Epic Games Store as a secondary client opened only for free weekly titles or specific exclusives. Steam remains the default hub for discovery, community, and library management. Tim Sweeney, Epic’s CEO, once described matching Steam’s ease and enjoyment as a “long journey.” The current effort looks like the most determined step yet along that path.
Reaction on social platforms and forums has been cautiously optimistic. Posters on Reddit’s r/EpicGamesPC subreddit noted the private beta will likely surface first through the company’s Discord server. One commenter highlighted the benchmarking clarification from the Epic presenter, who pushed back against skepticism tied to the high-end test machine. Results were consistent, the employee insisted. Another thread pointed out that faster download speeds, while not part of the immediate launcher overhaul, have been confirmed for future updates. That promise matters. Slow downloads and high CPU usage during installs have ranked among the most repeated criticisms.
Of course benchmarks and roadmaps do not equal shipped software. Epic has laid out ambitious plans before. Its original 2019 Trello roadmap included many of these same features only for some to slip or arrive years late. This time the company frames the work as a complete rearchitecture rather than incremental patches. The private beta should offer the first real test. If performance matches the claims and the new social and discovery tools land cleanly, the Epic client could shed its reputation as an afterthought.
Developers stand to gain as well. In-store patch notes and third-party community tools reduce friction for studios publishing on the platform. Better analytics and easier ways to communicate with players could encourage more third-party support. Epic has already rebuilt parts of its backend services in recent years to improve reliability. The launcher overhaul extends that focus to the front-end experience customers actually see.
So the stakes are clear. Epic wants the store to feel like a complete destination rather than a launcher required to play certain games. Whether the changes prove enough to shift meaningful market share from Steam remains an open question. Competition has already forced improvements across the industry. Yet for millions of PC gamers tired of waiting for the Epic client to load or hunting for basic information, the upcoming version cannot arrive soon enough.
Recent coverage has captured the momentum. PCMag reported on the addition of performance-checking tools and deeper Fortnite integration. Tom’s Hardware highlighted the attempt to reach feature parity with Valve while noting the test hardware used for speed claims. IGN summarized the full 12-month plan and pointed to the public beta as a key upcoming milestone. Each report draws from the same Unreal Fest materials that first leaked via X user LuKaOnIndeed and quickly spread across gaming communities.
The next few months will show whether execution matches the presentation. A private beta in late summer followed by broader access could give Epic time to refine before the holiday sales season. If the new launcher delivers on its speed and feature promises, it may finally give players a reason to open the Epic client first instead of last.
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