Epic goes all-in on AI: its Disney shooter is to be built without handwritten code

Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine, is making a major shift towards artificial intelligence in game production. As reported by Bloomberg and picked up by Insider Gaming, the change covers an as-yet unnamed shooter Epic is making for Disney, featuring Marvel and Star Wars characters. It had been planned for March 2027. No new date has been given.

No more handwritten code

According to Bloomberg, the game director told the team to stop writing code by hand. Art, too, is to be "generated with full AI workflows". Developers were reportedly stunned by the decision. It is not clear what this looks like in practice, for example whether programmers will now only commission and review code produced by AI tools, or what role artists will keep. Epic has not disclosed details of the project.

AI tools can now write code from plain-language instructions, but their output usually still needs checking by experienced programmers. Likewise, image generators can quickly produce sketches and variations, but bringing them up to the standard of a big game is a separate challenge. Epic's project could therefore become a high-profile test of how far AI can be pushed in game production today.

Sweeney: a "huge pivot"

Epic's founder and CEO Tim Sweeney describes a company-wide shift. "We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration," he wrote on X on 12 October. He added that the goal is to "build MORE and BETTER stuff", not to do the same with fewer people. Epic's communications director Jake Jones, for his part, speaks of "embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers". Both statements are meant to reassure that AI will speed up people's work rather than replace them.

Why it matters

Generative AI is one of the hottest topics in the games industry. Publishers hope for faster production, while many developers worry about jobs and the quality of games. Sweeney's assurance that this is not about smaller teams is a clear response to those concerns. Epic is also in a special position: many studios, including in Poland, use the Unreal Engine, and the company's decisions often set the direction for the whole industry. If the approach described by Bloomberg works, other teams may follow the same path.

A caveat

This article is based on Bloomberg's report as relayed by Insider Gaming. We were unable to access either the Bloomberg article or Sweeney's post on X directly, so we could not verify them independently. We also do not know the new release date or the game's title, and Epic has not commented on the details of the project. For players, the key question is whether and when the shooter will come out: March 2027 is so far the only date mentioned in the reports.