Epic Games is already showing what its 'huge pivot' toward AI looks like

Epic Games is releasing a revamped version of its launcher that the “Fortnite” maker says it vibe coded. “Programming is hard,” the company wrote in an announcement on Wednesday. “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 says its new launcher is “light on features” for now and that users should “think of it as a speedboat and not a yacht!” The announcement, which also outlined plans to bring Fortnite to Linux, came days after Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said there was a major shift underway at the company. “We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration,” Sweeney wrote on X on Monday.

Sweeney said the company isn’t looking to shed developers, but rather enable them to do more. “The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal,” he said.

Epic’s leader made similar comments in March when the Fortnite maker announced that it was laying off more than 1,000 employees.

Sweeney said the cuts were not related to AI. “Since it’s a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren’t related to AI,” he wrote in a memo to employees that the company shared publicly. “To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.”