Epic Games released its rebuilt Epic Games Launcher in Preview on October 14, 2026, opening the test to Windows, macOS and, for the first time, Linux users. The company describes the new client as “vibe coded” and says its own commissioned benchmarks put cold-start performance well ahead of Steam.
Those comparisons are Epic’s claims, not independent testing by Game News Plus. On the official Launcher Preview page, Epic lists a 5.47-second cold start for its new launcher against 10.07 seconds for Steam, which it summarizes as 1.8 times faster. Epic also says the Store opens three times faster than Steam, while moving from the background to the library took 0.36 seconds compared with Steam’s 0.42 seconds.
The fine print says Keywords Studios conducted the testing in October 2026 as an independent third party commissioned by Epic. Its results average five tests on each of 13 machines, excluding the three lowest-end systems, and Epic notes that individual performance will vary.
A faster launcher with a redesigned library
Speed is only part of the Preview. Epic has introduced dedicated pages that combine each game’s status, activity, add-ons and play controls, along with a download manager showing live download, read and write speeds. Active, queued, scheduled and failed downloads can now be monitored from one place.
The library supports Details and Grid views, visual collections, hidden games and more sorting and filtering options. Search results update as users type, while the top bar can be customized with favorite games and apps. Epic has also added party and voice-chat features spanning Fortnite, the Epic Games Store and the Epic Games app.
This is not the finished replacement for the existing launcher. Epic says some legacy features, including certain social and account-management options, are still missing as it works toward feature parity. Installing the Preview also uninstalls the legacy client, although purchases, installed games, cloud saves and progress remain tied to the same Epic account.
Epic’s initial October 14 announcement advised competitive players and developers working on live projects to keep using the current launcher during the Preview. The company later revised that guidance: its updated announcement still warns that beta issues are possible, while the current FAQ says in-game services should function for casual and competitive play. Anyone testing the Preview should therefore check Epic’s latest notes rather than rely on the original recommendation alone.
Native Linux support arrives, with Fortnite planned for later
The Preview runs natively on Linux and officially supports Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or newer, Fedora 43 or newer, and Debian 12 or newer. Other distributions may work but are not officially tested, and many games remain Windows-only builds that may require a compatibility layer.
Fortnite is not part of the Linux rollout yet. In its official announcement, Epic said it is rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat support for Linux and working with distribution maintainers on security requirements. The company plans to bring Fortnite to Linux once that work reaches enough distributions, then make the improvements available to other developers.
Does native Linux support make you more likely to try the new Epic Games Launcher while it is still in Preview?
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