Fortnite’s Epic Games Goes All In On AI, Saying The Quiet Part Out Loud

It’s no secret that Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has been an advocate for AI use for a while now, but he has just announced a sea change at his company that will have ramifications across the entire industry, not just the studio’s flagship game, Fortnite. Epic is now all in on AI.

A new report from Bloomberg revealed that Epic had delayed a video game collaboration with Disney, in part because it will now be made with an “AI first” model using AI systems like Claude. This was first circulated in an internal email, but Sweeney almost immediately spoke about the new plan publicly on Twitter:

“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.”

Then, replying to a comment that ratioed him about his inability to “read the room,” he had this to say:

“Much of the room wants it to be 2016 again, but it’s not. 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. Personally I’m optimistic about it and see it as empowering for creators.”

The Bloomberg report details that there will be no more handwritten code, and also the upcoming game will be “generated with full AI workflows.” There is no word on how Epic’s main game, Fortnite, will be affected by this plan for the Disney game, but it’s easy to read the tea leaves. Once Epic’s main cash cow, the company has been public about the fact that Fortnite has been in the red, which has led to moves like increasing V-Buck prices and laying off 1,000 employees in March of this year.

“There’s something beautiful about the most expensive game of all time ($2B) being dropped the same month that AI models became capable of creating comparable experiences. The swan song for the Big Studio Era.”