Epic Games reportedly pivoting to “AI first” game development model

Epic Games is shifting to an “AI first” development strategy for its collaboration with the Walt Disney Company, letting AI models write all the code and guide all the artwork for an upcoming shooter. That’s according to a Bloomberg report, which cites unnamed people familiar with the project who commented on the significant pivot in internal development at the Unreal Engine maker.

Human developers will be tasked with managing and guiding code and art assets generated by models such as Anthropic’s Claude, according to internal Epic employee messages viewed by Bloomberg. That means “no more hand-written code” and art assets “generated with full AI workflows,” according to the report.

The $1.5 billion collaboration between Epic and Disney, announced in early 2024, was slated to release a Marvel- and Star Wars-themed shooter in March 2027. That project has now been delayed indefinitely amid the AI-related shakeup and understaffed, slower-than-expected development thus far, according to the report.

“We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do,” an Epic spokesperson said in a statement.

“We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney wrote on social media shortly after the Bloomberg story was posted. “The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal.”

Let’s get efficient, baby

Sweeney and Epic have long been bullish on what they see as an impending game development revolution spurred by AI. In an interview with IGN in June, Sweeney saw the technology resulting in games with “the possibility of infinite dialogue with a really simple setup for creators,” leading to situations where “small teams will be able to create games with immense amounts of characters and immense and interactive worlds.”

Sweeney said last November that AI usage disclosure tags such as those required by Valve’s Steam platform “make no sense” because AI tools “will be involved in nearly all future production.”

Epic laid off over 1,000 employees in March, citing a “downturn in Fortnite engagement” as the main reason behind the move. Months later, Fortnite Senior External Development Manager Stephanie Arnette said that “I know everyone’s biggest fear is, ‘Oh my god, AI is going to take all our jobs.’ That’s not our goal. The goal is to make us more efficient.”

Last May, Epic and Disney faced some embarrassment when an AI-voiced Darth Vader character added to Fortnite started repeating curse words and uttering some baffling opinions before a hotfix was rolled out.

A survey of over 2,300 game industry professionals ahead of this year’s Game Developers Conference found that 36 percent used generative AI tools as part of their jobs, including 30 percent of those at game development studios. But those AI tools were used for tasks like research and brainstorming (by 81 percent of AI-using respondents) much more than for code assistance (47 percent) and prototyping (35 percent).