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Epic Games Disney Project Reportedly Delayed for AI-First Development
Epic Games has reportedly delayed an unannounced shooter being developed with Disney, with the project now undergoing a significant overhaul built around an “AI-first” production model. According to Bloomberg, the game had internally been targeting March 2027, but employees have since been told that release is delayed with no replacement date communicated.
The project reportedly features properties including Marvel and Star Wars, although Epic and Disney have never formally announced it to the public. More notable is why development is changing. Bloomberg reports that its developers have been instructed to shift towards an AI-first workflow using tools including Anthropic’s Claude, with one internal directive calling for “no more hand-written code” and art to move through fully AI-based workflows.
That makes the project an unusually aggressive test of generative AI inside a major game production rather than simply another studio introducing AI-assisted tools around the edges.
Tim Sweeney Confirms Wider AI Pivot
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has since publicly confirmed that something much broader is happening across the company.
“We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic,” Sweeney wrote, describing developers being moved around to prepare for “maximum AI acceleration”. He said the goal is not to produce the same amount of work with fewer employees, but to allow Epic’s existing teams to create more content faster, with successful tools eventually feeding back into Unreal Engine for other developers.
Sweeney later described Epic Games’ objective more modestly as attempting to “survive the AI revolution” while emerging capable of producing better code and content more quickly. That distinction is worth noting following Epic’s decision in March to lay off more than 1,000 employees after a decline in Fortnite engagement. At the time, Sweeney explicitly said those cuts were not the result of AI replacing workers.
Disney’s Investment Makes This a Significant Test
The delayed shooter also sits inside a much larger relationship between the two companies. Disney announced a US$1.5 billion investment in Epic Games in 2024, alongside plans for a persistent entertainment universe connected to Fortnite involving Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Avatar properties.
That makes this reported project particularly significant. Rather than testing AI on a small experimental game, Epic appears willing to apply the approach to content tied to some of entertainment’s most valuable franchises.
It also goes substantially further than many of the AI experiments currently appearing elsewhere in games. Capcom, for example, has discussed using AI alongside its REX Engine for programming, testing and development workflows, but Epic’s reported ambition to remove handwritten code and route artwork through AI workflows represents a considerably more sweeping production change.
Whether that actually makes the delayed Disney project faster or better remains unproven. For now, the first tangible consequence of Epic’s AI-first experiment appears to be the opposite: a game once internally targeted for March 2027 no longer has a release window at all.
