Epic Games has reportedly delayed a shooter based on Disney’s Marvel and Star Wars franchises, with its developers told to use more AI. According to Bloomberg, the yet-to-be-named game was supposed to be released in March of 2027, but its launch date has been pushed back to an unspecified date. Aside from that, the company also told the people working on the project to switch to an “AI first” production model. One of the game directors was quoted telling staff that there will be “no more handwritten code” and that the game’s art would now be “generated with full AI workflows.”
Around the same time this news came out, Epic boss Tim Sweeney posted an update on X that seemingly confirms the change. “We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration,” the Epic founder said on the platform. “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.” Sweeney has previously criticized Steam for putting AI tags on games, calling it “irresponsible of Valve.” He says that AI is just a tool and that it’s useful for handling boring, menial, and repetitive tasks like finding errors in code or rigging 3D models. “We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do,” Epic Games communications director Jake Jones told the publication.
We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration. 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.October 12, 2026
The announcement still reportedly left some of the developers working on the project in a state of astonishment. They were hoping that the directive wasn’t serious or that Epic Games would change its mind about the decision, while others jokingly asked if they should ask Claude to fix its own errors. The delayed title was supposed to be the first in a series of games involving Disney intellectual property, which had invested $1.5 billion in the game developer and publisher in 2024. However, Bloomberg reports that progress on the game has suffered because it lacked the number of people required to keep the schedule on track. It seems that the company is trying to make up for lost time by pushing its people to use AI in the hopes that they’ll be able to work much more quickly.
AI is indeed quite a useful tool, with some developers using it to build surprisingly complicated vibe-coded games, like this GTA clone set in Taipei or this decompiled version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. One group even used Gemini for their free game demo, leading to a cost of $1,000 a day in AI usage bills. Despite that, many creators and developers have been against the use of AI in the industry, with one major gaming convention in the UK outright banning games that were built mostly using AI.
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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
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tells you all you need to know about future Unreal Engine versions (ai first and ai coded "improvements")... hopefully developers who actually care about making quality stuff ditch it before its too late.Reply
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My own experience is that AI-written code isn't yet quite production grade. It's a good tool for debugging and code reviews. Sometimes, even rewriting some messy code to simplify it, a bit. But, it tends to do less well when generating large amounts of code from scratch.
They'd do better with softer incentives and a more gradual adoption path that both builds developer skills in working with AI and doesn't get ahead of the AI's own capabilities. Reply
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the company also told the people working on the project to switch to an “AI first” production model.
From some unnamed director:
“no more handwritten code”
says that AI is just a tool and that it’s useful for handling boring, menial, and repetitive tasks like finding errors in code or rigging 3D models.
But also from Tim Sweeny:
“We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration,”
It seems like these statements are a bit contradictory with each other. Almost like they're just issuing directives on the fly.
And also Tim Sweeny:
“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.”
But from the development side:
The announcement still reportedly left some of the developers working on the project in a state of astonishment. They were hoping that the directive wasn’t serious or that Epic Games would change its mind about the decision, while others jokingly asked if they should ask Claude to fix its own errors. The delayed title was supposed to be the first in a series of games involving Disney intellectual property, which had invested $1.5 billion in the game developer and publisher in 2024. However,
Bloomberg reports that progress on the game has sufferedbecause it lacked the number of people required to keep the schedule on track. It seems that the company is trying to make up for lost time by pushing its people to use AI in the hopes that they’ll be able to work much more quickly.
This feels a little like a disaster waiting to happen. Reply