Epic Games Shifts to Gen-AI in Development of Delayed Star Wars and Marvel Shooter
- Epic Games is utilizing gen-AI for a delayed shooter project featuring Star Wars and Marvel characters.
- The company aims to adopt an “AI first” approach for production, transitioning away from hand-written coding.
- Disney holds a $1.5 billion stake in Epic and has shown interest in acquiring the company outright.
Epic Games has reportedly turned to generative AI to conclude the development of a shooter that combines elements from the Star Wars and Marvel franchises, a project that has faced internal delays. According to a Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier, sources familiar with the unannounced game indicate that it has encountered some obstacles, prompting the Fortnite maker to encourage developers to leverage more generative AI tools as production continues.
This new shooter is said to involve characters from both the Marvel and Star Wars universes, with an original release timeline set for March 2027. Following the project’s setbacks, Epic has instructed its staff to implement an “AI first” production pipeline, utilizing technologies such as Anthropic’s Claude to complete the game.
An internal communication reviewed by Bloomberg revealed that a game director informed developers there would be “no more hand-written code” and that artwork should be “generated with full AI workflows,” a statement that surprised many within the organization.
Jake Jones, Epic’s communications director, reiterated the company’s commitment to advancing AI-accelerated development, stating, “We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do.”
Tim Sweeney, Epic’s CEO, highlighted the significance of this shift on X, tweeting, “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.”
The Walt Disney Company acquired a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games several years ago, collaborating on a “games and entertainment universe” connected to Fortnite. Although specific details regarding the collaboration remained limited at the time, both companies expressed intentions for players to “create their own stories and experiences.” Recently, there have been reports that senior Disney executives are considering purchasing Epic Games outright.
This push towards integrating generative AI across game development at Epic comes less than a year after the company laid off over 1,000 employees. At that time, Sweeney stated, “we’re spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded.”
News Courtesy of Eurogamer
