The head of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, recently expressed his views during an interview with Lex Fridman, discussing the widely criticized performance of the Epic Games launcher. He acknowledged that it has improved but is still regarded as clunky and inconvenient to use.

“One reason people characterize the Epic Games launcher as clunky is that the Epic Games launcher is indeed clunky,” Sweeney remarked. “We need to enhance this.”
Translation: “One reason people consider the Epic Games launcher clunky is that it is indeed clunky, and we need to enhance it.”

Sweeney also noted, “We have not prioritized quality of life features adequately. This has been a disappointment to us and many users.”

In the interview, he shared insights about the launcher’s varying performance challenges, which often depend on a user’s proximity to a CDN (Content Delivery Network) and their library sizes. These differences can lead to significant loading delays for users with subpar internet connections, a problem he related to his own experience. He expressed a desire for the Epic launcher to adopt user-friendly features that would make it more enjoyable to navigate, akin to Steam.

Looking to the future, Sweeney boldly predicted that the benefits of the Epic Games approach will eventually surpass those of Steam, especially as gaming becomes increasingly multi-platform.

He also mentioned the toxicity of some Steam user communities who engage in harassment against developers who utilize Epic Online Services. Sweeney ended by affirming that developers use these services to foster connections among players across different platforms and labeled the resulting negativity as unwarranted.