It seems as though Epic Games has gotten itself in a bit of a pickle. In March, the gaming company laid off 1,000 employees after a reported “downturn in Fortnite engagement” forced them to cut costs. But, wouldn’t you know it, those employees were actually pretty crucial in making the projects that could have helped the developer boost its engagement. The company is working on a Disney project, which will feature characters from Marvel and Star Wars, which was set to be out in March. However, according to a new report in Bloomberg, the company underestimated how many people it would take to produce the game. Now, not only is the project delayed, but it’s an “AI first” project.
Predictably, this news is not being received especially warmly within the Epic Games staff, which has still been working hard despite losing hundreds of their colleagues. Last week, when the powers that be in the company announced that there would be “No more hand-written code” and that the game will be “generated with full AI workflows,” employees were reportedly “stunned,” which many hoped the news was some kind of sick joke. However, a spokesperson from Epic confirmed the news, telling Bloomberg, “We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do.”
Disney didn’t offer a comment in Bloomberg‘s report, but it’s hard to imagine the company would be too opposed to this, given that less than a year ago it was gung-ho about adding user-generated AI content to its Disney+ app. Of course, Sora doesn’t exist anymore so that deal is no more, but it certainly set a precedent about what it was willing to do with its very valuable IP.
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