From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


So Epic's going big into the whole AI thing; they've made some
announcements about how they're rushing full-speed into AI-assisted
coding. And to prove it, they've released a new version of the client
for Linux which -they've proudly boasted- has a faster load time than
Steam!

Which might be impressive if
a) if people cared about how quickly it takes to
load a game-launcher program
b) if the speed improvement was noticeable (it's
only slightly faster, a few seconds at most and
probably only fractional seconds faster usually)
c) if the Epic launcher had the same number of features
as Steam to begin with,
d) if the just released 'fast' version wasn't even
more stripped down than the already feature-
limited client,

and most importantly...

e) if Valve didn't just release an update to Steam
which completely negated the speed advantage Epic
was boasting about.

All of which make this new release pretty pointless. So permit me the
smallest of laughs at Epic's expense: tee-hee.


Even more, Epic was very proud about how this client was 'vibe-coded'
using AI, once again mistaking how people feel about stuff like that.
Gamers have been quite vocal about their dislike of AI in game
development. Now, using AI-assisted programming tools isn't
necessarily a terrible thing but relying entirely on AI coding to
create a launcher which can itself run other executables seems...
risky. Not to mention the biggest use of these tools recently has been
to downsize development teams, and for a company that has claimed it's
focused on 'the developer', Epic's promotion of something that has led
to some many programmers losing their jobs seems contrary to that
mission statement.

The end result of all this being that this proud boast of Epic isn't
really having the results they were hoping for... at least not among
its customer-base.

Then again, Epic's big pivot to AI was probably more to attract
investors than making it seem cool to gamers. "Look at us; we're all
into AI and everything; aren't we high-tech? Give us money!" But I'm
pretty sure those same investors are going to also be looking at how
Epic is continually repelling its users and wondering how they'll make
back their money. Fortnite continues to bleed users, Unreal Engine
struggles to pay for its own expensive development costs, and EGS
doesn't even manage that. I don't think the fact that Epic is diving
head-first into the AI-pool is going to do much to convince investors
that the company is under good management.


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

So Epic's going big into the whole AI thing;

Ellison's Skydance just announced they'll let folx make whatever with
their IP, presumably with ai, after a royalty of course. that will be
strange and terrible

rms

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Sat, 17 Oct 2026 15:40:42 -0600, "rms" <[email protected]> said
this thing:

So Epic's going big into the whole AI thing;

Ellison's Skydance just announced they'll let folx make whatever with
their IP, presumably with ai, after a royalty of course. that will be >strange and terrible

Yeah, the whole Skydance thing is just another big mess waiting in the
wings. You'd think after the other thousand or so media consolidations
that have fucked over the industry/user, there'd be some awareness
that these things never end well... but they keep getting approved.

Do you have a link to the announcement you mentioned above? I hadn't
heard of it and would like to read more (particularly any limitations.
By your description, AI-generated Star Trek pornography would be
permitted, and I doubt that's the intention. Even *if* Data is fully
functional ;-)

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