As Epic goes all in on AI game development, maybe it’ll be the kids who ultimately decide the fate of the games industry

Epic is pivoting development of its unannounced Star Wars x Marvel shooter to fully embrace AI, according to a report by Jason Schreier on Bloomberg. That means, according to staff inside Epic, the upcoming game will be developed without hand-written code and art will be “generated with full AI workflows.” It’s quite some news, and it’s understandably caused a backlash from people who believe video games are best when crafted by humans, not AI.

Is this the end of game development as we know it, and can anything be done to stop it? As ever, I feel like the only thing that matters to Epic and the games industry at large here is the bottom line. If this Star Wars project (and the future of Fortnite) is successful, an AI game dev future will be pretty much set in stone. Complete failure, though, and CEO heads will start spinning as profits slide and shareholders start to demand change.

The worrying part of all this, as someone who is well into their 40s and is mostly looking on with a view to the games industry as a whole rather than purely Epic’s live service game machinations, is that I don’t think I’m part of the group who can change things – at least not directly. I don’t play Fortnite and I doubt I’ll play the Starvel/Marwars shooter. I know someone who will, though: my son. I expect your kids will, too.

If you’ve got kids I expect you’ll hear them talk about two games: Roblox and Fortnite. Roblox feels like a lost cause at this point, its online island acting almost like a completely separate games industry in of itself, with standards well below what is expected elsewhere. But Fortnite, I think there’s a battle to be fought there. Fortnite has its faults, but it’s not perceived to be the same trash factory that Roblox is.

My son has a love/hate relationship with Fortnite. He’s either all-in or he’s completely out and moaning about how “Epic has screwed up” – he and his friends, most likely gee’d up by vocal YouTubers, aren’t afraid to kick the shooter to the kerb the moment they feel their time is being wasted. This is a game he’s spent a significant amount of his own money on, yet there’s very little banked goodwill. You know what these kids hate just as much as a poor season? AI slop.

While it’s true that kids are exposed to AI of all kinds, including generative, even at schools, they have an eye for spotting shit – especially art. It’s this, which will reportedly be AI generated, that is key to this battle. If Epic gets art wrong, and delivers slop, it might spell the end. Why engage with something created by someone (or something) that so obviously doesn’t care about its audience at all? With so many options out there for kids today, it’s so easy to take themselves into spaces that do. 

Yes, this is anecdotal, based on my son and his friends (and maybe I’m clinging on to all branches of hope that exist) but I’d be amazed if it’s not a scenario repeated across plenty of kids’ friendship groups. Epic will be hoping its legion of young Fortnite fans flock to its crossover shooter, but these kids won’t tolerate AI-generated dross.

If Epic can’t make an AI-generated Hulk look impressive taking down an AI-generated General Grievous, AI might not have the future in game development everyone seems to think it will. The kids, I hope, will make a stand.

Of course, you could just stop your kids playing Fortnite. I banned Roblox in this house and I haven’t felt bad about that decision for even one second!