Epic Games is rushing headfirst into generative AI-based game development for an upcoming Disney shooter that uses characters from Marvel and Star Wars. Developers on the project were reportedly told to implement AI in their workflows, including for producing the game’s art.
According to a new report by Bloomberg, developers on the game were told to implement an “AI-first” production model using Anthropic’s Claude AI models. The team is not to use any more “hand-written code,” and even artists are being pushed to use the technology that has become a punching bag among actual players. The director of the unannounced game reportedly told developers that all art should be “generated with full AI workflows.”
“We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do,” Jake Jones, communications director at Epic Games, said in a statement.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has made no secret of his love of generative AI, and even criticized storefronts like Steam for forcing developers to disclose their use of the technology on its store pages. But staff within Epic Games’ ranks have been less impressed. According to Bloomberg, many working on the Disney game responded to last week’s surprise AI policies with confusion and shock. It’s unclear what the company’s guardrails are for fixing mistakes made by AI and not letting “slop” seep into the final work product.
The upcoming shooter, which Bloomberg reports was supposed to release in March 2027, has now been delayed due to slow progress and understaffed teams. Despite a $1.5 billion investment by Disney in 2024 for collaborations that include this project, the Fortnite maker laid off 1,000 people earlier this year amid the battle royale’s struggles and the costs of ongoing antitrust litigation.
Modding and homebrew scenes have been overrun in recent weeks with an onslaught of new vibe-coded projects thanks to big improvements in the latest AI models like Claude Opus 5.5. It’s affected everything from jailbreaking PS5s to people being able to play versions of popular classics inside their browsers.
As of yet, however, there’s been no major gaming company to try to utilize the technology on a massive scale as the foundation for its development pipeline. Anyone who’s suggested anything even close to that has quickly found themselves on the receiving end of a very loud online gamer backlash.
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