Epic Games delayed an unannounced Marvel and Star Wars game and told developers to stop writing code by hand, instead using AI tools like Claude to generate and guide code and artwork. CEO Tim Sweeney framed this as expanding team output rather than cutting headcount, though it follows massive layoffs earlier this year.

• The Disney shooter project slipped past its March 2027 target after Epic underestimated staffing needs; the directive came from a game director telling the team "No more hand-written code"
• Epic is restructuring around AI across the company, with Sweeney confirming a "huge pivot" to retool developers for "maximum AI acceleration" and positioning this in Unreal Engine 6
• The timing raises credibility questions: Epic laid off 20% of staff (1,000+ people) in March citing financial losses, then announced this AI-first shift weeks later, making it hard to separate whether AI is truly expanding capacity or replacing workers