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.

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