Ex-Valve Dev Blasts Epic's AI Launcher and Tim Sweeney's Gabe Newell Jab

Did you catch Epic's latest launcher announcement? The one where they proudly declared they "vibe coded" the new Epic Games Store launcher because "programming is hard"? Yeah, that didn't sit well with a lot of people—including former Valve writer Chet Faliszek.

Faliszek, known for his work on Half-Life and Left 4 Dead, took to video to share his disbelief. He couldn't wrap his head around Epic leading with the message that programming is hard, so they used generative AI instead. "I saw this online and I had to go look it up because I couldn't believe this is true," he said. The only customer-facing excitement, he noted, is that it has a new look.

But what really got Faliszek going was the second paragraph of Epic's blog post, where they compared the launcher to a "speedboat and not a yacht" while mentioning it has "advanced digital commerce technology such as a shopping cart." Faliszek saw this as a not-so-subtle jab at Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, who is famous for his yacht collection. And he's not wrong to think so—Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has a history of taking shots at Newell's yachts, like earlier this year when he blamed "severe disruptions in the component parts supply chain for megayachts" for Valve's Steam Deck price hike.

"We are in the second paragraph of their announcement and little Tim is so obsessed with Gabe that he has to try to frame a cheap shot against Gabe," Faliszek said. He joked about Epic's communications team, suggesting that the smart people he used to know there are gone, replaced by yes-men who let Sweeney sneak in digs. "Little Timmy, make sure you make a jab at Gabe," he imagined. "Where should we put it? First paragraph? No, no second. We'll be subtle."

Beyond the jabs, Faliszek questions Epic's overall vision. He points out that while Epic has contributed massively to gaming through Unreal Engine and Fortnite, their store still feels sterile compared to Steam. "What is their North Star and what is yours?" he wonders. For Valve, he says, Steam's vision is like an MMO—a whole ecosystem of mechanics, rewards, and feeds that make discovering, buying, and playing games feel good. Players aren't just consuming; they're expressing themselves. With Epic, he still doesn't understand their North Star. "Saying it loads faster when it doesn't have all the features isn't a real flex," he added.

Faliszek does acknowledge that Valve could improve Steam, like better moderation of comments and forums, but insists Steam is still far ahead. And in a twist of timing, Valve updated its own Steam launcher just one day before Epic claimed its AI-powered launcher was faster. Ouch.

So, what do you think? Is Epic's AI gamble a step forward or just a lot of noise? And will you be giving the new launcher a try? Let us know in the comments!