Epic Games Wants AI to Build Its Next Disney Game

Epic Games has reportedly delayed a game being developed with Walt Disney, instructing the team to utilize artificial intelligence more extensively during production. The project, which was expected to launch in March, now has no announced release date. The game is a shooter featuring characters from Marvel and Star Wars. Developers have been directed to adhere to an "AI first" production model, with human oversight of AI-generated work.

One tool mentioned is Anthropic’s Claude. The shift appears to involve significantly more than using AI as an auxiliary development tool. An internal message to developers stated, "No more hand-written code." The message also suggested AI could be employed in both programming and visual production, while developers would guide, review, and manage the output.

Epic Games has been promoting AI adoption across its divisions before this change to the Disney project, which may represent a more aggressive experiment. It could become the first major video game from a large publisher to be developed primarily through AI-assisted workflows. Epic Games claims developers will still be the creative leaders, describing the approach as "AI-accelerated development."

For now, the primary consequence is the delay, as the Disney collaboration lacks a confirmed release date while Epic moves the development team toward a more AI-driven production process.