Epic Games Pivots to AI Workflow and Delays Disney Project

Epic Games has delayed its $1.5 billion Marvel and Star Wars collaboration with The Walt Disney Company indefinitely after shifting development to an AI first workflow using tools like Anthropic’s Claude.

Internal communications viewed by the Bloomberg report indicate that human developers are being transitioned from direct creation to managing and guiding outputs from generative intelligence tools.

Epic Games Delays The Disney Shooter

The $1.5 billion collaboration between Epic Games and The Walt Disney Company, originally announced in early 2024, was slated to debut a Marvel- and Star Wars-themed extraction shooter in March 2027. Understaffed development and slower-than-expected progress, combined with the sudden corporate restructuring around artificial intelligence, have now pushed that release date back indefinitely. Disney representatives declined to comment on the postponement.

Tim Sweeney Defends The Artificial Intelligence Revolution

Sweeney explained that our job, as the provider of tools and technology to much of the industry, is to design for the present that is and the future that will soon be, adding that the company’s modest aim is to survive the AI revolution, help other developers do the same, and emerge with the ability to create better code at a faster rate.

We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration.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.

— https://x.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/2109705826688549304

“We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration. 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.”

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, via Twitter

Sweeney argued that the room fails to recognize how much the technology has changed, asserting that the revolution will serve as an accelerant for real creators rather than a mere cost-cutting mechanism.

Epic Integrates Artificial Intelligence Into Unreal Engine 6

The internal pivot mirrors tools that Epic is actively introducing to the development community. An experimental Model Context Protocol plugin for Unreal Engine 5.8—the last planned major release of the UE5 line—that allows developers to connect large language models directly to core engine systems, including materials, meshes, assets, levels, and Blueprints. Epic intends to make large language model integration a central pillar of the upcoming Unreal Engine 6, targeting an early access release by the end of 2027, followed by a full release 12 to 18 months later.