Epic and Disney shooting game delayed: handwritten code banned, art also fully shifts to AI

Beating AI News Flash: A shooter game co-developed by Epic Games and Disney has been delayed. It was originally set to launch in March 2027, and there is currently no new release date. The game will bring together Marvel and Star Wars characters, but the development team has received a radical new requirement: fully adopt an "AI first" model, no longer hand-write code, and instead use AI tools such as Claude to generate it. The game's art must also be produced through a complete AI workflow, with human developers responsible for guidance and review.

This game was originally the first title in the two sides' partnership plan. In 2024, Disney announced a $1.5 billion investment to acquire an equity stake in Epic, with the two parties agreeing to a multi-year collaboration. People familiar with the matter revealed that Epic underestimated the manpower and timeline required for the project, and development progress has consistently fallen short of expectations. During a video meeting last week, some employees were shocked by the new directive, and some jokingly asked: if Claude writes incorrect code, does Claude have to fix it itself?

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney subsequently confirmed that the company is carrying out large-scale adjustments to its development teams to accelerate the adoption of AI. He stressed that the goal is to enable developers to create more and better work, rather than complete the same work with fewer people. However, Epic laid off more than 1,000 people just in March this year, and at the time the company explicitly stated that the layoffs were unrelated to AI.

Skepticism toward AI in the gaming industry is also deepening. A GDC 2026 survey shows that 36% of surveyed industry professionals have already used generative AI in their work, but the proportion who believe it has a negative impact on the industry has risen from 30% last year to 52%.