"No More Hand-Written Code": Epic's AI Pivot and the Delayed Disney Shooter
Epic has reportedly delayed its Star Wars and Marvel shooter while it retools around AI. Tim Sweeney says it's about doing more, not cutting people.
Epic Games is making one of the boldest AI bets in the industry, and it's already moving release dates.
What happened
Bloomberg reported on October 12 that Epic's shooter built with Disney, featuring Star Wars and Marvel characters, has been delayed. It had been aiming for March. There's no new date.
The reporting points to a major internal shift. An email reportedly told teams to move toward art "generated with full AI workflows" and "no more hand-written code."
Sweeney's response
Tim Sweeney didn't confirm the Disney details, but he did confirm the direction. He said Epic has "a huge pivot underway" to retool for AI acceleration, and that the goal is more and better work, not fewer people.
The 2nd Shift take
Epic runs Fortnite and Unreal Engine, which powers a huge share of games across the industry. When a company that size says it's going AI-first, everyone else takes notes. The open questions are the ones players care about most. Will games get better, or just faster? And will "not fewer people" still be true a year from now?
We'll be watching whether the Disney game comes back looking sharper for the wait, or whether this becomes the cautionary tale. Where do you land on studios going all-in on AI? Drop your take in the 2nd Shift Discord.
Source: Game Developer, citing Bloomberg.
