Epic Games reportedly pivoting to "AI first" game development model

Epic Games is reportedly shifting to an “AI first” game development strategy for its upcoming Marvel and Star Wars shooter. The project is a collaboration with the Walt Disney Company. According to a Bloomberg report citing internal employee messages, human developers will manage and guide code and art assets generated by artificial intelligence models like Anthropic’s Claude.

The internal directives reportedly call for “no more hand-written code” and art assets created through full artificial intelligence workflows. The broader $1.5 billion collaboration between Epic and Disney, announced in early 2024, has now been delayed indefinitely amid this development shakeup and slower-than-expected progress. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed a major internal pivot to retool for maximum acceleration using the technology, stating the aim is to help developers build more and better content.

Sweeney has previously predicted that artificial intelligence prompts will soon allow small teams to build massive, highly interactive games. Epic has faced challenges with generative media tools before, including an incident where an artificial intelligence-voiced Darth Vader in Fortnite began repeating profanity before receiving a quick hotfix.