Epic Games has delayed an unannounced shooter built on Disney licences, which mixes Marvel and Star Wars characters, and ordered its team to rebuild it around generative AI. Bloomberg reported it on 12 October 2026, and Polygon and Engadget followed.
“Much of the room wants it to be 2016 again, but it's not”
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games CEO, replying on X · polygon.com ↗
One of the game's directors reportedly told staff there would be "no more hand-written code" and that art should come from fully AI-driven workflows, with developers pushed toward tools such as Anthropic's Claude. The game was set for March 2027 and now has no date. Engadget adds that Bloomberg's sources say it had already slipped from an earlier window, rumoured as November, before the AI order came down.
Fortnite cosmetics based on Disney villains Maleficent, Captain Hook and Cruella De Vil
Epic Games · Image: Polygon
Epic's communications director described the company as embracing AI-accelerated development led by its developers. CEO Tim Sweeney wrote that the aim is more and better work from the same people, not the same work from fewer, and that the benefits would reach Unreal Engine users. Some developers were reportedly shocked by the instruction. Polygon notes Epic has already used an AI-voiced Darth Vader in Fortnite, which players abused.
The order lands after Disney's $1.5bn investment in Epic in 2024 and a round of layoffs affecting more than 1,000 staff in March. Engadget cites a GDC survey in which 52% of respondents call generative AI bad for the industry, up from 30% last year.
A smartphone showing the Epic Games logo on a purple backdrop, in front of the company's website
Image: Engadget
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