Epic Pivots Mid-Development, Announces Full Tilt Use Of AI In Game Production

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Reporting from Jason Schreier at Bloomberg suggests a chilling future for gaming as Epic Games appears to be shifting course into AI in a very aggressive way.

The company has not been quiet about their embrace of the technology. But according to Schreier’s reporting, Epic Games recently delayed the release of an upcoming shooter video game made in collaboration with Disney said to feature Star Wars and Marvel characters, all to focus on extensively deploying AI into the game’s development. Purported internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg even have one of the game’s directors actively stating “No more handwritten code” alongside the implementation of AI to generate all artwork for the game. Initially projected to release in March, this seachange from human developers, their ideas, and hard work, into the aggressive push for AI tools, has erased that former release date.

Part of this push seems possibly to be because of the potential pressure Disney could be applying to Epic over the mysterious project. Having invested 1.5 billion dollars into the company in 2024, Disney would not have been happy to hear that the game’s development has apparently been slower than initially expected due to Epic’s incorrect assessments of what resources the project actually needed. This potentially reads as a scramble to meet Disney’s expectations, while also being able to laud the final product as the first of its kind: the first video game from a major publisher primarily made using AI.

Of course, Epic isn’t suggesting anything of the sort. In a reply to Bloomberg News’ request for comment, Jake Jones, communication director at Epic Games, said: "We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do.” Disney, meanwhile, has yet to reply to any request for comment.

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Source(s): Bloomberg

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