Players still bristle at the letters “AI” in anything game-related, yet studios keep leaning on these tools harder every year. Epic Games now appears to be taking the biggest swing of any major publisher: it is building a game with an AI-first mindset. “No more hand-written code,” one of the development directors reportedly told the team last week.
What Epic is actually asking for
Epic has never hidden its enthusiasm for generative AI, and the technology is firmly in the plans for the next generation of Unreal Engine. Internally, the company is now pushing employees to use AI tools such as Claude even more than they already do, with humans shifting into a supervising and managing role rather than writing everything themselves.
And it isn’t just about code. According to the plan, the art assets for the game Epic is developing under its partnership with Disney are also meant to be generated.
The reaction inside the studio
Employees are not celebrating. Some are hoping the directive wasn’t entirely serious and that leadership will walk it back. Others joked about whether they should also use Claude to fix Claude’s own mistakes. A portion of the development team was simply stunned that such a radical decision was made at all.
What we know about the game
The only concrete detail confirmed so far is the genre and the license: it’s a shooter that brings the Marvel and Star Wars universes together. The original plan targeted a March 2027 release, but the game has been delayed and no new date has been set. Leadership reportedly underestimated how many people and how much time finishing it would take.
This is not a one-off collaboration either. The shooter is the first product of the Epic Games and Disney partnership that kicked off with a $1.5 billion investment in 2024, and more games are supposed to follow. If you want to keep tabs on what else is coming from the big studios, our gaming articles hub collects the latest news, and we also covered Naughty Dog’s roadmap recently.
Tim Sweeney responds
The plans set off a loud debate on social media, and Epic Games CEO and founder Tim Sweeney stepped in quickly.
“There’s a massive development shift happening at Epic, where we’re reorganizing developers to equip them for maximum acceleration with AI,” Sweeney said, adding that the goal is not to do the same work with fewer people, but to let everyone create MORE and BETTER, and to bring those benefits to every team using Unreal.
The statement reads partly as a defense against claims that wider use of generative AI will lead to further layoffs. That argument is a harder sell given that Epic Games already cut more than 1,000 employees back in March of this year. AI wasn’t the only factor there, though – declining interest in Fortnite played its part too.
Why it matters for you
If Epic really pushes an AI-first pipeline through to the finished product, the Marvel and Star Wars shooter becomes the first large-scale test of whether that approach can deliver a game players actually want to play. And because the same philosophy is headed into the next generation of Unreal Engine, the outcome will shape tools used by a huge slice of the industry – not just one studio. Epic’s storefront moves are worth watching too; we recently wrote about a free Epic Games Store title on mobile.
FAQ
It’s a shooter that combines the Marvel and Star Wars universes. It’s the first title from the partnership Epic Games and Disney began after a $1.5 billion investment in 2024.
The original plan pointed to March 2027, but the game was delayed and no new release date has been announced. Leadership reportedly underestimated the staffing and time required.
According to Tim Sweeney, the goal isn’t doing the same work with fewer people but letting developers create more and better with AI assistance, with humans directing and managing the output.
Epic Games laid off more than 1,000 employees in March of this year. That wasn’t caused by AI alone – reduced interest in Fortnite contributed as well.
Yes. Epic has said generative AI is part of the plan for the next generation of Unreal Engine, and Sweeney promised the benefits would reach all teams using Unreal.