Epic Games tells developers on its delayed Marvel and Star Wars shooter there will be no more hand written code and that art will be made with full AI workflows, according to Bloomberg
Epic Games has reportedly told devs to use more AI tools on its delayed Star Wars & Marvel shooter title One director told staff "No more hand-written code" and said all game art should be "generated with full AI workflows"
Context
Bloomberg called this the first attempt by a major game company to build a title with AI as the main foundation of development, a test case for the whole industry.
Dexerto is relaying a Bloomberg report based on people familiar with the project and an internal message Bloomberg reviewed. The game is an unannounced shooter developed with Disney. Epic is the privately held maker of Fortnite.
Deep dive
On October 12, Dexerto posted that Epic Games has reportedly told devs to use more AI tools on its delayed Star Wars and Marvel shooter, and that one director told staff no more hand written code and said all game art should be generated with full AI workflows.
According to Quartz, summarizing Bloomberg, the game had been scheduled for release in March and now has no new date. Bloomberg reported that development lagged because Epic misjudged the headcount and timeline the project needed.
In an internal message Bloomberg reviewed, one of the project's directors told staff there would be no more hand written code and that the artwork would be generated with full AI workflows. Developers were told to use Anthropic's Claude, with humans managing and guiding the AI's output. Bloomberg said the news, shared on a video call last week, shocked a number of developers, who questioned how errors in AI generated work would be handled and doubted the plan would succeed.
Epic communications director Jake Jones told Bloomberg the company is embracing AI accelerated development led by Epic developers, whom he called the visionaries and creative drivers for everything Epic does.
Bloomberg described it as the first attempt by a major game company to build a title with AI as the primary foundation of its pipeline.
What to expect next
Watch whether Epic sets a new release date and how much of the shipped game's code and art is actually AI generated.
Also watch reactions from Disney, from game developer unions and from players, and whether other large studios follow Epic's approach or hold back after seeing how this project goes. Bloomberg's sources said staff doubted the plan, so any departures from the team would be telling.