Epic Games has delayed its unannounced Marvel and Star Wars crossover shooter, which was scheduled for March 2027. Bloomberg reports that the game has no new release date and that Epic is pushing developers toward an AI-first production process.
According to Bloomberg, developers are being asked to use generative AI tools, including Anthropic’s Claude, to help finish the game. A director reportedly told staff, “No more hand-written code,” and said the shift would include having all of the game’s art “generated with full AI workflows.” Some Epic developers were reportedly shocked by the pivot.
Epic communications director Jake Jones told Bloomberg, “We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do.” Shortly before Bloomberg published its report, CEO Tim Sweeney described a “huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration” in a post on X.
Sweeney said the goal wasn’t “to do the same stuff with fewer people,” but to help teams build “MORE and BETTER stuff” and bring the benefits to teams using Unreal. Bloomberg’s sources said development on the crossover had been slower than Epic expected because the company underestimated both the number of developers needed and the time the game would take to make.
Epic’s AI push follows several uses of the technology in its Disney-related work. Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic in 2024 and agreed to a multi-game partnership with the company. The two collaborated on an AI-voiced Darth Vader in Fortnite last year, but players quickly abused the character’s AI voice. This summer, Epic said it would use AI to voice three dozen Fortnite skins. The voices were trained on performances by consenting actors, a situation the source compares with last fall’s Arc Raiders AI voice controversy.
Epic’s renewed push follows layoffs of over 1,000 developers in March. Sweeney cited a downturn in Fortnite engagement that began last year, which led the company to spend more than it was making.
One X user told Sweeney he wasn’t reading the room well on how people feel about AI use in game development. Sweeney replied, “Much of the room wants it to be 2016 again, but it’s not,” adding that Epic’s role as a provider of tools and technology was to design for the present and near future. He said he was “optimisic [sic]” about AI and saw it as empowering for creators.
Another user asked how that position fit with firing 1,000 people. Sweeney didn’t respond. With the shooter delayed, it remains unclear whether Epic’s AI-first approach can help a project that fell behind without creating new challenges for its quality and oversight.
