Epic Games claims its redesigned Launcher V2 storefront loads up to 6.5 times faster than the current client, in a fresh attempt to compete with Valve's Steam. The company unveiled the overhaul, which is now available to players, as the most significant reworking of its PC storefront since the Epic Games Store launched in December 2018.

The speed claim is the headline number. For developers and publishers, a faster client addresses one of the store's longest-standing complaints: sluggish navigation that discouraged browsing. A storefront that loads quickly changes how much storefront placement, sale events and discovery pages are actually worth.

What does Launcher V2 change for players?

Epic has filled several functional gaps that separated the Epic Games Store from Steam. The new launcher introduces:

• Player profiles, giving accounts a persistent public identity on the platform for the first time
• User reviews, a feature Steam has offered for over a decade and a core trust signal for purchase decisions
• Universal controller support, removing a per-game compatibility barrier that pushed controller users toward Steam's mature input stack

Reviews carry particular weight. Steam's review system, for all its controversies around review bombing, is a major discovery and reputation mechanism. Epic's version signals the company now wants comparable infrastructure rather than a leaner, curation-only storefront.

Why speed was the priority

Epic framed the 6.5x performance improvement as the foundation of the redesign. The existing launcher, built on web technology, drew years of user criticism for slow startup and page transitions. Technical specifics beyond the performance claim were not detailed in the announcement, but the redesign represents a structural rebuild rather than a visual refresh.

For studios running free-game giveaways, weekly promotions and exclusive launches on the store, the practical question is simple: does a faster, more fully featured client convert more of Epic's registered users into active buyers? Epic has historically competed on margin, taking 12 percent of revenue versus Steam's 30 percent, and on paid exclusivity deals. Those levers acquired traffic. The launcher itself now has to retain it.

The competitive picture

Steam remains the dominant PC storefront by a wide margin, with Valve's platform offering social features, workshop mod support, cloud saves, family sharing and a deep review ecosystem. Epic's Launcher V2 closes part of that feature gap rather than all of it.

The store's free weekly games program continues, and Epic has sustained it as its primary user-acquisition tool since launch. Launcher V2 suggests a shift in strategy: retain users with a competitive client rather than rely solely on giveaways to drive logins.

For developers weighing platform strategy, the calculus is unchanged on revenue share but improved on infrastructure. A store with reviews, profiles and responsive pages gives studios more of the tools they use on Steam for community building and post-launch sales.

What to watch

The claim worth tracking now is adoption behavior: whether players who claim free games stay and buy inside the rebuilt client, and whether Epic publishes engagement or attach-rate figures alongside its usual free-game redemption numbers in upcoming state-of-the-store updates.