The happy-go-lucky bigwigs at Epic Games have instructed the creators of an unannounced shooter that features Marvel and Star Wars characters to complete their project using an “AI first” production model, according to a report, with generated art and code. The Disney collaboration in question was allegedly due for release in March, but has now been delayed indefinitely. The game’s makers are, we’re told, being ordered to make heavier use of Anthropic’s Claude and similar tools.

The report in question is from Bloomberg, who cite “people familiar with the project”, together with an alleged internal message from the game’s director. “No more hand-written code,” the director is said to have told the devs, with all art to be “generated with full AI workflows.”

Epic have, in general, bet big on generative AI. The tech is central to the next iteration of Unreal Engine, much to the displeasure of many game developers. Epic already use the stuff like a bike pump to inflate Fortnite character designs into something like a 3D model. They’ve also deployed it to voice-act Darth Vader, earning the ire of unions. Meanwhile, company CEO Tim Sweeney keeps complaining about Valve requiring genAI disclosures on Steam, evidently sensing an opportunity to lure AI-curious developers away to the perpetually ailing Epic Games Store.

The rush to make hay out of genAI comes as Epic’s moneyhorse Fortnite starts to run out of kick. Epic laid off over 1000 people earlier in the year, with Sweeney citing a “downturn in Fortnite engagement”. It’s the company’s largest layoff wave since Epic jettisoned 16% of their workforce in 2023, after spending too much money trying to turn Fortnite into a “metaverse” – that is, a new species of internet created by crossbreeding VR bodysuits with social media, the blockchain, and Ready Player One. The failure to make a metaverse of Fortnite doesn’t inspire much confidence in Epic’s current generative AI drive.

Disney took out a $1.5 billion stake in Epic this February. A couple of months later, Bloomberg reported that Epic had commissioned a Disney extraction shooter, alongside other Disney endeavours. It’s not clear whether the extraction shooter is the same project referred to in the new article – the timeframes don’t quite add up on paper, with Bloomberg’s older article claiming that the extraction shooter was slated to launch in November.

The Fortnite publishers haven’t confirmed or denied Bloomberg’s account of events, but they have sent the outlet a statement in which they seek to qualify the “AI first” framing. “We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do,” writes Jake Jones, Epic communications director. Disney have yet to comment at all.

Bloomberg say that Epic staff have been joking about prompting the Claude software to fix its own errors. Others are hoping that Epic management will eventually have a change of heart, or weren’t being serious in the first place. Assuming all of this is legit, I’d say there’s some mileage to the latter hope, in that a lot of generative AI work isn’t about actually working with the tools, but being seen to do so by a company’s investors. In general, there’s a familiar fake-it-till-you-make-it mindset at play among genAI’s biggest advocates and backers; so much money has been sunk that everybody is under the cosh to keep up the charade.