Epic Games shifts to AI development model with Disney — Ars Technica

Epic Games is changing its approach to developing a joint project with The Walt Disney Company: artificial intelligence may become the main tool for creating code and visual materials. Ars Technica reports, citing Bloomberg and people familiar with the project.

AI will generate code and graphics

According to Bloomberg, models such as Anthropic's Claude will generate code and art assets for an upcoming shooter based on Marvel and Star Wars. Epic Games developers are expected to manage and direct the work of the models and the materials they create. Internal company messages reviewed by Bloomberg discussed abandoning writing code manually and using end-to-end AI processes to create art assets.

The $1.5 billion Epic Games and Disney collaboration, announced in early 2024, had envisaged the shooter being released in March 2027. The release has now been postponed indefinitely. As Bloomberg notes, the schedule was affected by the change in development approach, staffing shortages, and slower-than-expected progress.

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Epic Games' position

An Epic Games spokesperson said the company is implementing AI-accelerated development and that its developers remain the creators and drivers of the creative process. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney also wrote on social media that the company is reallocating developers and reconfiguring workflows to maximize the use of AI. According to him, the goal is not to do the same work with fewer people, but to create more and better products and extend these benefits to teams working with Unreal.

In March, Epic Games laid off more than 1,000 employees, explaining the move by a decline in Fortnite user engagement. Sweeney had previously said that AI tools would be used in almost all future game production. At the same time, a survey of more than 2,300 game industry professionals showed that generative AI is most often used for research and brainstorming, according to 81% of respondents who use such tools. AI was used to assist with code by 47% of respondents and for prototyping by 35%.