The Epic Games and Disney collaboration woes seemingly continue, as the former has reportedly delayed its next title from March to an unknown date, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. Those familiar with the project also claimed the developer is pushing an “AI-first” policy in its production.
The shooter reportedly features Marvel and Star Wars characters, potentially the same as the alleged ARC Raiders-style extraction that received “middling internal reviews” back in April. But the guidance from one of its directors is “No more hand-written code,” claims Bloomberg from an internal message, which also noted that all art will be “generated with full AI workflows.”
Epic Games apparently underestimated the time needed for development and how much staff it would require. This has led to “slower than expected” progress, seemingly further echoing Disney’s reported disappointment in the studio’s “release timeline.”
In a statement to the publication, communications director Jake Jones said, “We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do.”
While the company has been pushing AI for some time now (see Fortnite), utilizing it so thoroughly for production has apparently gone down as well as you’d think. “Some made jokes about how they should handle errors produced by the AI-generated work,” claimed sources speaking to Schreier, “asking if they should ask Claude to fix its own mistakes. Some said they hoped that it was not a serious request or that the company would reverse course, arguing that the initiative wouldn’t be as successful as Epic hoped.”
Interestingly, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney stated on Twitter that, “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.”
Damage control? Not wanting people to think that Epic is effectively replacing human developers with AI? Whatever the case, it’s certainly concerning. As always, stay tuned for further updates, because right now, Disney’s $1.5 billion investment into the Fortnite developer is looking less fruitful by the day.
