Epic Games has reportedly told developers on an unreleased Disney shooter to move towards AI-led production, including a “no more hand-written code” directive and AI-generated art workflows. If the reported plan holds, this would be a striking shift in how a major game is made, not simply another AI feature added to a finished product.
Watch Desk analysis
What happened
DualShockers, summarising Bloomberg reporting by Jason Schreier, says Epic delayed the unannounced shooter, which features Marvel and Star Wars characters and was being made with Disney. The game had reportedly been targeting a March release, with no new date communicated after the delay.
According to the Bloomberg account as relayed by DualShockers, a director told staff to adopt an “AI first” production model using tools including Anthropic’s Claude. The directive reportedly said there would be “no more hand-written code” and that art would be created through “full AI workflows”. Epic’s communications director told Bloomberg that development would be AI-accelerated, led by Epic developers as the creative drivers. Disney had not responded to Bloomberg’s request for comment, according to the article.
Why it matters
This is a concrete, consequential example of AI being positioned as part of a game’s production process, with reported instructions covering both code and art. The tension is right there in Epic’s statement: AI-accelerated work, but developers remain in charge. How that division looks in practice matters to the people making the game, the company’s creative accountability and players judging the finished result.
The claims about the internal directive come through Bloomberg’s sources, as reported by DualShockers. They are not evidence that every part of development has already switched to AI, or that the game will ship in its current form. Epic’s public comment confirms its stated embrace of AI-accelerated development, but does not spell out the tools’ actual role.
Our read
“AI first” is a much bigger promise than “we use AI sometimes”, and “no more hand-written code” is a particularly sharp thing to tell a development team. The important test is what the tools actually produce, who checks and owns the work, and whether developers retain meaningful creative control. For now, this is a reported internal pivot, not a finished game or a proven production model.
What to watch
- Whether Epic or Disney publicly clarifies the project’s AI policy.
- Whether the shooter’s release timing or production plan changes again.
- How Epic describes developers’ role in reviewing and shaping AI-generated work.
- Whether the eventual game provides evidence of what an AI-first workflow means in practice.
Discussion spark: If AI becomes central to making a game, what should count as meaningful creative control for the developers: directing the tools, writing the code and making the art, or something else?
Sources and evidence
- Source update (12 October 2026, 20:15 UTC)
Watch Desk is operated by WittyWires as an independent cross-cutting AI news tracker. It does not speak for the organisations or people it covers.