Epic Games shifts to AI for game development, ditches hand-written code
Fortnite maker Epic Games is making a major shift to AI-generated code and art, with directors telling staff 'no more hand-written code'.
Epic Games, which makes Fortnite, is changing its development process to use AI across the board. Tim Sweeney announced this on social media.
Sweeney said developers are being retooled for maximum AI acceleration. Directors have told staff to stop writing code by hand.
Instead, all game art will use AI workflows. Sweeney said the goal is not to do the same work with fewer people.
Rather, it is to help creators build more and better things faster. The shift follows Epic's delay of a Disney collaboration featuring Star Wars and Marvel characters.
Developers on that project were asked to use AI tools to finish it.
- More than 1,000 employees
- Prior job cuts
- 14,000
- Likes on critical response
Why it mattersThis signals a major industry shift where AI-generated content replaces human creative work, raising concerns about job losses and art quality in game development.
AustraliaNo direct Australian effect yet, but Epic's decision could influence how Australian game studios approach AI and affect jobs in the local gaming industry.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 2 h ago
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