Epic Games delays Marvel and Star Wars shooter, tells devs "No more hand-written code"

Epic's Disney collaboration was set to be the first game from a partnership announced after Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic in 2024 and took an equity stake. Now that shooter has slipped past its March date with no replacement date confirmed, and the studio has simultaneously changed how the game is being made, directing staff to use AI tools such as Anthropic's Claude and to generate all of the game's art through AI workflows.

The internal reaction was raw. Developers were told about the shift on a video call last week, and some were "stunned," according to Bloomberg's sources, which also reported that development had fallen behind schedule partly because Epic misjudged the staffing and time the game would need. Epic communications director Jake Jones framed the move as "embracing AI-accelerated development," with Epic developers described as the creative drivers.

Bloomberg noted that Epic was already encouraging AI use across its divisions and said no other major games company has previously tried to make a game mostly with AI. That makes this a test case for a specific partner, not a general trend: a 2026 GDC survey found more than a third of game developers use AI in their work, while more than half believe it is harmful to the industry.