Epic releases redesigned launcher preview with Linux support

Epic Games released a preview of its redesigned Epic Games Launcher on October 14, offering the desktop client for Windows, macOS and, for the first time, Linux. The company says the new version starts faster and improves game-library management, but the preview has a reduced feature set and its speed claims come from testing commissioned by Epic. The redesigned launcher adds customizable collections, improved search and filtering, dedicated game pages, and more detailed monitoring of downloads and disk activity. Users can also connect PC game libraries to see titles from multiple sources in one place, and customize the top bar with frequently used games and applications. Epic Parties voice chat is included across Fortnite, the Epic Games Store and supported Epic applications. Epic says the launcher’s library loads 30 times faster than before. In testing conducted by Keywords Studios at Epic’s request, a cold start to the store took an average of 5.47 seconds, compared with 10.07 seconds for Steam. The tests averaged five runs on 13 machines and excluded the three lowest-end machines. The results are company-reported benchmarks, not an independently conducted comparison.