Cutting corners: Epic is now another of the big software companies that want to bring AI into everything they do. According to internal sources, the real trial by fire for this "AI first" approach will come with the shooter Epic is developing with Disney. If it ever comes out.
Epic's first game under its Disney partnership is way behind schedule, and the publisher is willing to bet everything on generative AI to get it over the finish line. But the push to use AI across the entire development workflow could eventually tear the studio apart.
The sorry state of Epic's AI push was revealed by unnamed sources in a Bloomberg report. Managers have apparently told the developers working on the Disney project to follow an "AI first" production approach. A game director told Epic staff to avoid writing new code by hand, using Anthropic's Claude or other chatbot tools instead.
Epic wants employees to use AI for generating "art" assets, too. The same director said all of the game's art would come from "full AI workflows." The massive push to use AI for game development was essentially confirmed by Epic communications director Jake Jones, who said the company is embracing "AI-accelerated" development.
Sweeney himself backed this up on X the day the report came out, describing a "huge pivot" underway at Epic to retool developers around AI. He insisted the goal isn't to do the same work with fewer people, but to let everyone build more and better stuff.
Epic staff reportedly greeted the AI push with little enthusiasm during an internal video call. Some devs joked about using AI to correct the mistakes and hallucinations made by the AI, while others asked whether management was serious about the request. Someone suggested that Epic, as a company, might eventually find the push isn't as successful as executives expect.
Epic has long been a "true believer" in the transformative power of LLMs and chatbots. Tim Sweeney, Epic Games founder and CEO, is urging the entire industry to enthusiastically embrace generative AI. Sweeney even criticized Valve's Steam for requiring developers to disclose the use of AI tools, arguing that these labels will eventually become meaningless.
Epic began its major collaboration with Disney in 2024, when the Mickey Mouse mega-corporation invested $1.5 billion in Sweeney's studio to fund multiple gaming projects. The aforementioned shooter would be the first project to come out of the partnership, featuring characters from the Marvel and Star Wars franchises.
Earlier reports suggested the Disney shooter was in rough shape even before the new AI push. The game is late, the sources said, because Epic underestimated the manpower and development time required to make it.
In that light, Epic's attempt to speed up development with LLMs looks like a desperate bid to tackle the many issues the company faces right now. In March 2026, Epic laid off more than 1,000 employees amid a slump in Fortnite engagement.