Tim Sweeney believes AI will usher in a new golden age for video games

2026-10-18 06:46
,
by Thibaut

The president of Epic Games stands by his belief: generative artificial intelligence truly represents the future of video games! Following the major strategic shift announced by his teams this week, Tim Sweeney doubled down on X.

Through several posts, the businessman detailed his perspective on the subject. According to him, AI will make it possible to create games that were previously considered too expensive and unprofitable. He even goes so far as to speak of a new “golden age” for video games.

“The games we’ve long wanted, which didn’t exist because they’d cost several times more to make than they’d earn back, will soon become possible. As will the games developers wanted to build, but couldn’t with the re

Sweeney also wants to encourage developers using AI to speak up without fear of criticism.

“Developers who are getting value from AI should speak up. There’s safety in numbers. MOST developers are doing it and loving it – and if they’re not talking about it it’s mostly out of fear for haters attacking them, their product, and their company.”

He also described his work routine during the development of Unreal Engine 1. He said he spent 70% of his time “typing and refactoring large bodies of code needed for a complete engine feature set.” As a result, he believes that artificial intelligence can now handle this portion of the work, which would free up time for humans to focus on other, more important tasks.

“So, it has always seemed perfectly logical that we would rely on AI for that 70%, once the AI could do it with a similar quality standard as we could, which has never been perfection. It came as no surprise that, after a few years of AI model evolution, it was able to take the reigns on that 70% and free up programmers’ time for more valuable tasks.”

The games we’ve long wanted, which didn’t exist because they’d cost several times more to make than they’d earn back, will soon become possible. As will the games developers wanted to build, but couldn’t with the re

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) October 17, 2026

• Tech