Epic Games, the studio behind the highly popular game Fortnite is taking a turn on how it's going to handle coding in the coming times. The employees there are being pushed more towards using artificial intelligence tools. There is an upcoming title that the studio is coming up with Disney, which is going to use this approach.
This new project will supposedly include Marvel and Star Wars characters and will have a shooter experience, although it has been delayed and was previously planned for a March 2027 release.
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AI First Approach
This new game which is being made in collaboration with Disney is touted to be developed using AI, according to a report from Bloomberg and might utilise tools like Claude. "No more handwritten code", this is what one of the game's directors said in an interview memo to the staff. Humans will be leading the way when it comes to management of tasks and even artwork of the game will be "generated with full AI workflows."
What Is The Game All About
This new project could be a shooter game and could have characters from both Marvel and Star Wars, and was initially planned for a March release but the new date has been pushed forward now.
This shift in working and utilisation of AI tools comes after the studio's chief Tim Sweeney portrayed this "huge pivot" towards AI. Taking to X, he wrote, "moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration.” Although Tim Sweeney has insisted that this will not cause job cuts. "The aim isn't to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal,” the post said.
Even though Epic Games chief has said that it will not affect jobs but the reality is far from that and only in March this year the company laid off 1,000 employees, which is 20 per cent of the company's workforce. Claims are that this was because of an internal overhaul that would save the company over $500 million.
Employees Mock The Transition
Reports suggest that developers were astonished by this new move with some even mocking it and joked about Claude first handling its own errors. Some also hoped for the company to reverse this decision. There was an obvious defence from Tim Sweeney and he said that this is how the company is moving towards adaptation of the new era of AI. In a post on X, he wrote, “Our more modest aim is to survive the AI revolution, help other developers do the same, and come out on the other end making better code and content faster,”
AI Push Being Shoved By Companies
AI is increasingly being assimilated into the workforce and companies, especially tech companies, are constantly pushing for this. Ai giant OpenAI is already writing their internal code and even Uber is doing the same.
At the same time some companies like Microsoft and Meta are easing their reliance on AI because of rising costs. But this trend of layoffs due AI adaptation is on the rise.