Steam Client is now faster than Epic's new vibe coded launcher(respawnfirst.com)
318 points by starkparker 19 hours ago | 325 comments
tl;dr: Within 24 hours of Epic launching its "vibe-coded" (AI-assisted) new launcher that marketed itself as faster than Steam, Valve pushed an update dropping Steam's cold boot to ~5.23 seconds, beating Epic's ~5.47 seconds. The article also notes that despite the rewrite, Epic's client still lacks a long list of Steam features including forums, reviews, Workshop/mods, Remote Play, Big Picture mode, family sharing, and controller remapping.
HN Discussion:
  • ↑Competition between launchers is good and should spread to all software
  • ↓Valve likely uses AI too; the AI-vs-human framing is misleading
  • ↓Fans defending Valve are parasocial; Steam's extra features aren't all desirable
  • ↑Epic's lack of community features shows contempt for users, validating the article's critique
  • ~Steam should have optimized sooner; the client has long been bad