Epic Games Launcher V2 to boot 5x faster in ground-up rebuild

Epic Games has announced a complete rebuild of its game launcher that will deliver significantly faster performance. The company revealed the plans during a presentation at Unreal Fest, outlining a 12-month roadmap that prioritizes overhauling both the Epic Games Store and the launcher itself.

Epic acknowledges widespread launcher problems. The company stated that every developer in the room and every player has experienced challenges with the current launcher. A slide from the presentation declared it is time for a change.

The new Epic Games Launcher V2 will feature a cold start that is five times faster on average. Overclock3D and Hardwareluxx report it will also be up to 6.5 times faster when launched from the taskbar tray.

Roadmap prioritizes launcher overhaul first. The most imminent tasks include a storefront rearchitecture and a private beta of Launcher V2. Additional near-term improvements encompass in-store patch notes, cross-region gifting and chunked installation for Fortnite.

Following the private beta, Epic plans a public release of Launcher V2. Subsequent work will focus on improving the Epic Games Store's design and user experience with features such as player profiles and avatars, user-written reviews and better search functionality.

Longer-term plans extend to multi-platform support. Future tasks include a multi-platform store, which may refer to an Epic Games Store presence on Xbox's Project Helix. Additional goals encompass universal controller support and a full storefront redesign.

The rebuild aligns with earlier comments from Epic Games Store vice president and general manager Steven Allison. In February he told Eurogamer the launcher sucks, describing it as slow and reliant on backend calls that cause delays depending on connection quality. Work on the overhaul began late last year and involves replacing core components to improve speed and responsiveness.

GamesIndustry.biz notes the complete rebuild of both the launcher and storefront backend aims to enable faster feature shipping, better performance and new community features. The changes were detailed as part of the State of Unreal presentation at Unreal Fest Chicago.