AI in game development

AI has become company strategy at some of the biggest names in games, while designers and players debate its effects. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney wrote on X that Epic is "moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration," AFP reported on October 13. Epic's AI MegaJam, running November 12 to 15, lets teams of up to five people use unlimited agents to build in Unreal Engine or UEFN; PC Gamer reported that Epic dropped an early rule requiring AI (our story).

Publishers are reorganizing too. Citing sources and an internal announcement, Insider Gaming reported on October 4 that Ubisoft's Motherbrain generative AI team will serve the whole company under Xavier Manzanares, who led research on the Teammates and Neo NPC projects. Ubisoft hasn't confirmed it publicly (our story).

Veteran designers are warier. Masahiro Sakurai told Denfaminico Gamer, in an interview translated by Kotaku, that Steam sells over 19,000 games a year and AI will push that higher, most of them unplayable. Receiving Japan's Order of Culture, Shigeru Miyamoto told a press conference, transcribed by Denfaminico Gamer and translated by Kotaku, that he couldn't tell whether AI could take over creative work but saw a chance to define what creating means (our story).

Players are tracking disclosure: a SteamDB snapshot reported by NeoTeo found 2,628 of 7,217 October Steam Next Fest listings, or 36.4%, carried the "AI Content Disclosed" label (our story).

What to watch: Epic's itch.io page says MegaJam winners will be named by January 29, 2027.