Epic Games has begun a massive pivot toward the use of artificial intelligence in the development of its projects. According to Bloomberg, some developers received instructions to work on an "AI-first" principle, and CEO Tim Sweeney officially confirmed this change of course, emphasizing the goal of accelerating production processes.
As journalist Jason Schreier notes in his report, the new approach is being applied to an unannounced shooter combining Marvel and Star Wars characters from Disney. The project's release, originally planned for spring, was delayed due to a miscalculation of the required staff. To catch up, management instructed teams to move away from writing code by hand and transition to generating visual effects using AI tools such as Anthropic's Claude. The developers' role will be reduced to managing processes and verifying the results.
Epic Games representatives confirmed the transition to "AI-accelerated development" but assured that creative control remains with humans. Tim Sweeney called it a "huge pivot" on the social network X. According to him, the main goal is not downsizing, but giving teams the ability to produce more and better, with these benefits eventually becoming available to Unreal Engine users as well.
The studio separately emphasized that the layoffs of 1,000 employees in March 2026 are in no way connected to the integration of artificial intelligence. At the time, the nearly 20% workforce reduction was attributed to a decline in Fortnite engagement, the overall market situation, and the costs of legal battles against Apple and Google. No new waves of layoffs have been reported following the Bloomberg announcement.
Despite official confirmations, a number of questions regarding the new workflow remain open:
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