Let’s get efficient, baby
Sweeney and Epic have long been bullish on what they see as an impending game development revolution spurred by AI. In an interview with IGN in June, Sweeney saw the technology resulting in games with “the possibility of infinite dialogue with a really simple setup for creators,” leading to situations where “small teams will be able to create games with immense amounts of characters and immense and interactive worlds.”
Sweeney said last November that AI usage disclosure tags such as those required by Valve’s Steam platform “make no sense” because AI tools “will be involved in nearly all future production.”
Epic laid off over 1,000 employees in March, citing a “downturn in Fortnite engagement” as the main reason behind the move. Months later, Fortnite Senior External Development Manager Stephanie Arnette said that “I know everyone’s biggest fear is, ‘Oh my god, AI is going to take all our jobs.’ That’s not our goal. The goal is to make us more efficient.”
Last May, Epic and Disney faced some embarrassment when an AI-voiced Darth Vader character added to Fortnitestarted repeating curse words and uttering some baffling opinions before a hotfix was rolled out.
A survey of over 2,300 game industry professionals ahead of this year’s Game Developers Conference found that 36 percent used generative AI tools as part of their jobs, including 30 percent of those at game development studios. But those AI tools were used for tasks like research and brainstorming (by 81 percent of AI-using respondents) much more than for code assistance (47 percent) and prototyping (35 percent).