Engadget: Survey finds more developers think generative AI is bad for the industry
Engadget ● Covered by 4 sources
Epic’s Disney game got delayed so it can use more AI, with no hand-written code and AI-made art. At the same time, more game devs now think generative AI is bad for the industry.
Based on reporting by Engadget — read the original for the full story.
Summary, retelling and take written by AI under human oversight; images are AI-generated illustrations. How we work · Report an error
Epic Games is pushing harder into AI even as a lot of game developers grow more skeptical about it. Bloomberg says the company’s upcoming Disney-linked game has been delayed while the team shifts to an “AI first” production plan. An internal message reportedly told staff there would be “no more hand-written code” and that art for the project should be built with full AI workflows.
That did not sound like a gentle suggestion. According to Bloomberg’s sources, the new direction was not welcomed by everyone on the team, and some employees were hoping the directive was less serious than it looked. Epic, though, has already been packing generative AI tools into Unreal Engine this year, so this fits a broader push rather than a one-off experiment.
The company’s communications director, Jake Jones, told Bloomberg that Epic is “embracing AI-accelerated development,” and framed Epic developers as the people driving the work. The Disney tie-up is a big one: Disney put $1.5 billion into Epic in 2024, and the two companies said the deal was meant to build a “games and entertainment universe.”
Bloomberg also said the game had already slipped from a rumored November launch to March before the AI directive came in. That timing matters, because the more ambitious the AI pitch gets, the more it starts to look like a production strategy rather than a shortcut.
And the mood across the industry is clearly cooler than Epic’s pitch. In GDC’s annual survey, 52 percent of developers said generative AI was bad for the industry, up from 30 percent in 2025. Even so, the tools are in use, mostly for research and programming rather than making assets.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Epic is doing what big tech always does: confusing “we can” with “we should.” The industry’s getting the usual sales pitch about speed, while the people who actually ship games are saying, louder every year, that the bill comes due somewhere else. Generative AI may be everywhere, but enthusiasm from executives is not the same thing as trust from developers.
Read more about this at: Engadget
