Epic Orders AI-First Development On Disney Shooter
Broad AI adoption at Epic touches every studio that ships on Unreal Engine, so the company's internal production choices set expectations for the wider industry even when they are not contractually imposed on licensees.
Key Facts
- Epic Games and Disney are co-developing an unannounced shooter featuring Marvel and Star Wars characters, originally scheduled for March 2027 and now delayed with no new date announced.
- Bloomberg reported that Epic Games instructed the project's developers to use an AI-first production setup with tools such as Anthropic's Claude, with humans managing and directing the AI's work.
- Internal messages reviewed by Bloomberg included a director's instruction of "No more hand-written code" and a directive that all in-game art be generated through a complete AI workflow.
- Epic Games communications director Jake Jones told Bloomberg the company is embracing AI-accelerated development.
- Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic Games in 2024, and the two companies formed a multi-title partnership.
Reporting from 4 sources: Automaton, GameBusiness.jp, GIGAZINE, Game Spark.
Epic Games has told developers on its unannounced Disney collaboration shooter to adopt an AI-first production setup, according to a Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier citing people familiar with the project. The game, which features Marvel and Star Wars characters, was scheduled for March 2027 and has been delayed with no new date announced. Internal messages reviewed by Bloomberg included a director's instruction of "No more hand-written code" and a directive that all in-game art be generated through a complete AI workflow using tools such as Anthropic's Claude, with humans managing and directing the output. The policy was conveyed in a video conference, and some developers were left stunned. Epic Games communications director Jake Jones told Bloomberg the company is embracing AI-accelerated development, with Epic's developers leading the way and setting the vision.
Bloomberg gaming reporter Jason Schreier broke the story on October 12, and Epic CEO Tim Sweeney answered it the next day on X. His statement: "A major transformation underway at our company right now, as we reposition developers to prepare for maximum AI acceleration. The goal is not to do the same things with fewer people, but to enable everyone to build more and better things, and to bring that benefit to every team using Unreal (Engine)."
Disney paid $1.5 billion in 2024 for a stake in Epic, and the two formed a multi-title partnership. This untitled shooter was planned as the first entry under that deal. Bloomberg cites an "AI-related policy shift" plus staffing shortages and delays as the reasons for the slip.
Some staff pushed back on the video call. One joke making the rounds asked, "Should we just have Claude fix the mistakes it made itself?" Others hoped the directive was not serious or that Epic would reverse it.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 4 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Automaton Unreal Engine手がけるEpic Gamesのボス、ゲーム開発に「生成AI全力活用」を宣言。コードもアートも、全面的に“AIファースト”
- GameBusiness.jp Epic新作「アートワークすべて完全なAIワークフローで生成」「手書きのコードもう書かない」―呆然とする開発者も…“AIファースト”でディズニー新作シューターを開発と報道
- GIGAZINE Epic Gamesがディズニーとの新作ゲームをAI中心で開発する方針に転換、「手書きのコードはもう不要」という社内指示も
- Game Spark Epic新作「アートワークすべて完全なAIワークフローで生成」「手書きのコードもう書かない」―呆然とする開発者も…“AIファースト”でディズニー新作シューターを開発と報道