One of the most ambitious crossovers in gaming just hit the brakes. Epic Games has reportedly internally delayed its unannounced shooter featuring Star Wars and Marvel characters, a Disney collaboration the Fortnite maker had expected to release in March 2027.
In a report from Bloomberg, journalist Jason Schreier writes that Epic informed staff the game — a collaboration with Disney born from the entertainment giant's $1.5 billion investment in the studio — has slipped with no new launch target communicated to the team. Epic has not officially announced the game or confirmed the delay; the details come from Bloomberg's reporting, which cites anonymous sources familiar with the unannounced project. But the delay is only half the story. Epic is now telling developers to adopt an "AI first" production pipeline for the rest of the game's development, including the use of Anthropic's Claude.
In an internal message seen by Bloomberg, one game director told developers there would be "no more hand-written code" and that artwork should be "generated with full AI workflows" — a directive that reportedly stunned many of the workers on the project. The announcement came during a video call in early October, and some developers questioned how the team would catch errors introduced by AI-generated content, while others doubted whether the new approach would deliver the results Epic expects.
Epic confirmed the pivot in a statement to Bloomberg. "We're embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do," said Jake Jones, the company's communications director.
CEO Tim Sweeney appeared to corroborate the report on social media, writing: "We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration." He added that the aim isn't to do the same work with fewer people, but "to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal."
The AI push lands less than a year after Epic laid off more than 1,000 employees, when Sweeney told staff the company was spending significantly more than it was making. It also follows a string of controversies around AI-generated content in Fortnite, including backlash over an AI-voiced Darth Vader.
The shooter itself remains shrouded in mystery. Disney's $1.5 billion stake in Epic, announced in 2024, was meant to kick off a "games and entertainment universe" connected to Fortnite, though concrete details were never shared beyond a promise that players could create stories and express fandom in a distinctly Disney way. More recently, reports surfaced that senior Disney executives were interested in buying Epic outright.
Whether an "AI first" pipeline can salvage the delayed shooter — and whether Star Wars and Marvel fans will embrace a game built that way — remains to be seen.
