The short version
- Bloomberg reports that Epic told developers on an unannounced game to work "AI-first" and avoid writing code by hand.
- A director reportedly said all of the game's art would be made with AI workflows, with people guiding the tools.
- The game is a Disney project featuring Marvel and Star Wars characters, reportedly an extraction shooter.
- Tim Sweeney confirmed "a huge pivot" at Epic. The company says the work is still "led by Epic developers".
What was reported
According to Bloomberg, the news landed on a video call last week and left some developers stunned. Under the new approach, AI tools such as Anthropic's Claude would do much of the production work, Bloomberg says. Developers would manage and check what the tools produce, rather than writing code and drawing art themselves.
Epic didn't deny the report. Sweeney posted on X that Epic is "moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration". A spokesperson said the company is "embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers".
Why this game
The Disney game has reportedly fallen behind, partly because Epic underestimated how many people it needed. That comes after Epic cut around 1,000 jobs in March. Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic in 2024, so there's a lot riding on this project.
The bigger picture
Epic doesn't just make games. It makes Unreal Engine, which powers a huge share of the industry. In June, Epic said Unreal Engine 6 will build in support for AI models such as Claude and Gemini. The aim is to cut manual jobs like level setup, character rigging and lighting tweaks. Sweeney's post says the goal is to bring those benefits "to all teams using Unreal".
Sweeney has backed generative AI for a while. He has called Steam's rule that games disclose AI use "really irresponsible".
On paper, this is the biggest studio yet to make AI the default way of building a game rather than an extra tool. Whether players notice, and how they react, won't be clear until the Disney game is shown.
What to watch: a reveal of the Disney project, and whether other big studios follow Epic's lead.
Images: Zerocade. Epic Games logo belongs to Epic Games.
