Epic Games signed up for criticism this week by positioning its work-in-progress Epic Games Store launcher overhaul as a showcase of generative AI's capabilities, boasting of how "we vibe coded the Epic Games Launcher" and insisting that "programming is hard." The response from some players and developers has waffled between cringe and condemnation. Former Valve writer Chet Faliszek, a veteran of Half-life and Left 4 Dead among other series, certainly shares in some of this criticism. He also asks an important question which may be missed in the sheer volume of AI backlash: what is Epic actually trying to accomplish here?

In a video response to Epic's launcher announcement, Faliszek is flabbergasted by the company's decision to lead, in its blog post, with the message that, "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."

"I saw this online and I had to go look it up because I couldn't believe this is true," Faliszek says. He notes that "the only customer-facing thing that would get a customer excited here is that it has a new look."

Like several others, Faliszek also lingers on the second paragraph of Epic's announcement. It reads: "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."

Faliszek, not unreasonably, interprets this as the latest jab from Epic, specifically CEO Tim Sweeney, at Valve over co-founder Gabe Newell's yacht collection.

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