What happened
A post from a news media article amplified a big detail: Epic’s Launcher V2 reportedly will not be built using Unreal Engine. That matters because the current Epic launcher has long been criticized by PC players for feeling slow, heavy, and less polished than Steam.
The timing is important. At State of Unreal 2026, Epic said it is working on a complete rebuild of the Epic Games Store launcher and storefront backend, with the goal of improving performance, discovery, community features, and the speed at which new player-facing features can ship.
Reports from Unreal Fest also point to major performance targets for Launcher V2, including much faster cold starts and quicker restores from the system tray. Other expected upgrades include player profiles, patch notes, reviews, community features, better recommendations, and broader controller support.
Why the “not built on UE” detail matters
Unreal Engine is one of the most powerful tools in gaming, but a PC launcher is not a game. It does not need cinematic lighting, real-time 3D worlds, or a full game-engine stack just to open a library, update Fortnite, show a store page, or install Unreal Engine.
A launcher lives or dies by things players feel immediately: startup speed, memory usage, clean navigation, downloads that make sense, search that works, and a library that does not fight the user.
That is why this detail hit so hard with the community. If Epic is moving Launcher V2 away from a UE-based setup and rebuilding it around a more focused desktop app architecture, it suggests the company finally understands the main complaint: the launcher does not need to look impressive, it needs to feel fast.
The bigger Unreal Engine picture
This does not mean Epic is pulling away from Unreal Engine. It is actually the opposite.
Epic is already laying out the road to Unreal Engine 6, which will bring together Unreal Engine 5 and Unreal Editor for Fortnite into one unified engine. The goal is to let developers build games and experiences that can ship across traditional platforms, Fortnite, and wider live ecosystems.
UE6 is being built around Verse, open standards, interoperable content, and larger-scale live experiences. Epic is targeting Early Access for the end of 2027, with a full release planned 12 to 18 months after that.
So the split is clear: Unreal Engine is becoming more important for building games and massive online worlds. The Epic Games Launcher, meanwhile, needs to become less like a heavy engine-powered shell and more like a modern PC app people actually enjoy opening.
Why players are reacting
Epic has never had a content problem. The store has free games, exclusives, Fortnite, Unreal Engine, Rocket League, publisher deals, and a huge developer ecosystem. The problem has always been the feeling of the launcher itself.
Steam feels like the default home for PC gaming because it is fast enough, familiar, feature-rich, and deeply social. Epic has the money, the games, and the engine tech, but the launcher has often made the store feel like a second tab instead of a main platform.
That is what Launcher V2 is trying to change. Faster loading times would help, but the real win would be making the whole experience feel less like a store you only open for free games and more like a daily PC gaming hub.
What to watch next
The next test is the beta. Performance numbers sound good on slides, but players will judge Launcher V2 on normal PCs, big game libraries, background updates, slow connections, and everyday use.
The features to watch are the simple ones: how fast the app opens, how quickly the library loads, how clean the new store pages feel, how downloads behave, and whether Epic can add social features without making the launcher bloated again.
If Epic gets this right, it will not beat Steam overnight. But it could finally remove one of the biggest reasons players avoid using the Epic Games Store as their main PC launcher.
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