Epic Vows Developers Stay in Charge. Its Reported Orders Say Otherwise
Epic says AI will help its developers build more and better games. Reported orders to stop writing code by hand and generate art through AI put that promise under pressure, months after the company cut 1,000 jobs.
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by Theo Lund
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Epic Games has confirmed a company-wide push toward AI-accelerated development, while reported instructions on a delayed Disney shooter put workers' control over their craft at stake.
The unannounced game, reportedly featuring Marvel and Star Wars characters, had been scheduled for March 2027. According to Bloomberg's sources familiar with the project, as recounted by Eurogamer and GamesIndustry.biz on October 12, it has slipped without a new release date being communicated.
The sharper news concerns how Epic reportedly wants the team to finish it. GamesIndustry.biz, citing Bloomberg, said developers were told on a video call the previous week to adopt an AI-first production process, including Anthropic's Claude, with staff overseeing its output.
An internal message from a game director reportedly said, "No more hand-written code," and instructed that the art be "generated with full AI workflows." Those are instructions about who makes the work, not merely which software sits on a developer's computer.
Epic offers a different emphasis. "We're embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do," communications director Jake Jones told Bloomberg.
The company's promise deserves a fair hearing. It also deserves a hard test.
Creative control means having authority over how something is made, including when a tool is the wrong one. If the reported instructions hold, Epic is restricting that authority while assuring its workers that they remain in charge.
The game-specific details come from one Bloomberg report relayed by two publications, rather than two independent confirmations. The reporting does not establish that AI caused the delay, that this game's workers will lose their jobs, or that generated material will ship unchanged. Disney did not immediately respond to Bloomberg's request for comment.
