Fortnite's Tim Sweeney Says 10 People Can Write ‘Breath Of Wild' With AI Soon
Nintendo
Many gamers recently celebrated alongside Tim Sweeney as he and Epic claimed victory over Apple in a series of significant rulings meant to reduce the tech giant's ability to universally scoop up 30% of revenue from releases on its platform.
But now? Sweeney is running in a new direction, full-steam toward the integration of AI into video games at a creative level, running afoul of many fans and developers alike.
Fortnite has recently run an experiment with a (licensed) AI Darth Vader that responds in real-time to player voice chat. That has led to thousands of funny clips and huge player engagement, enough to be considered a big success. So Epic is barreling forward with more AI characters and other elements to come.
Darth Vader
Loserfruit
Sweeney is a big driver of this, and his views on AI in game development are some of the most extreme in the industry in terms of embracing the technology, as he recently demonstrated when speaking to IGN at Epic's State of Unreal 2025 event.
He talked about how AI was just another significant advance in technology, the type that gaming had embraced for years from 3D gaming to hardware and engines supporting hundreds of players for games like Fortnite. He says AI can produce branching dialogue that writers could never envision, but his most controversial comment would be the following:
The idea that an entire team of Nintendo developers working for years to make GOTY winner Breath of the Wild could be replaced by a tiny team using AI sounds ridiculous on its face. Sweeney seems to be focused mainly on writing, but he doesn't expand on the implications of how that affects story. As in, you talk a character into switching sides in a conflict, opening up a new set of missions that were never meant to exist. How does that work? Perhaps the idea is that AI will just generate that too.
Fallout 76
Bethesda
Is his position actually unpopular? There seem to be four sides in this conversation:
1) Executives who see AI as the next big thing and will embrace and push it however they can, hopefully to lower costs, if nothing else.
2) Players who do not care about any of this and just want to make funny jokes with AI Darth Vader
3) Players who react to AI like touching a stove and want nothing to do with generative AI in their games, whether it's in writing, art, level-building, any of it.
4) The developers who do not want to lose their jobs as writers, artists and level-builders to AI, which they believe will make an inferior product and one based on their own stolen work.
What will happen from here? This doesn't feel like the metaverse or the blockchain or VR pushes from before. AI is here and legitimately changing enormous industries and evolving at such a clip that it's impossible to say what happens from here. And you can say a lot about Sweeney, but he's often right about where things are headed.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
‘Fortnite' Is Down: Here's When Servers Come Back Online For Season 4 And Power Rangers
It's official, Fortnite Chapter 6 season 3 is over, and Chapter 6 season 4 is on the verge of starting right after servers come back online. That's going to be a bit of a wait, but depending on when you read this, it's possible you may have woken up in the morning and can download and play. But you really should probably go to work or school. Or just call in sick. With server downtime starting in the middle of the night EDT time, and running about 2-6 hours on average, we can estimate when Fortnite season 4 will launch, and you can see those ranges below: Once you start heading over the Atlantic and get to the UK and beyond, we're no longer talking about an early morning play sessions, but rather the afternoon or evening. Fortnite has unloaded a whole bunch of information about its 'Shock and Awesome' season which will feature new Halo skins, free for everyone if you hit rank 100 (where you do not actually need to buy the battle pass). We have six colors of Power Rangers. We have Megazord. And we have a bunch of other crossovers that have been rumored or are totally secret so far. But it's a long season, so we'll see who Epic adds to its multiverse down the road here. Fortnite Chapter 6 season 4 will have us dealing with a bug invasion that was sparked by the events of the season 3 finale, and it's going to be a lot of fighting NPC insects on the map. Fortunately we have new wild weapons like the airstrike gun and a triple barrel gatling gun to help thin the ranks of the bug invaders. So, Helldivers skins? Starship Troopers skins? I guess the Flood are almost bugs so that connects to Halo. Power Rangers uh, have fought monster bugs…sometimes? Sure why not. See you in a few hours when servers are back online. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Newsweek
4 hours ago
- Newsweek
Sydney Sweeney's 'Great Jeans' Illuminate the Dangerous Resurgence of Eugenics
American Eagle came under fire recently for an ad campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney. In one ad, Sweeney fiddles with her jeans, saying, "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My genes are blue." A male narrator finishes with, "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans." It's a play on homophones, but the wordplay reveals a more sinister element: Sweeney does not just have great American Eagle jeans, she has great American genes. Picking a blonde, blue-eyed, able-bodied all-American girl was not an accident. It was about showcasing what are "good genes," and thus what are "bad genes." It's a modern eugenics movement proudly re-emerging amid a welcoming political climate. A window display of actress Sydney Sweeney is seen on a window of an American Eagle store on Aug. 1, 2025, in New York City. A window display of actress Sydney Sweeney is seen on a window of an American Eagle store on Aug. 1, 2025, in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images The American eugenics movement has historically promoted the superiority of Anglo-Saxon, able-bodied, wealthy people, leading to harmful policies from the Immigration Act of 1924 barring immigrants from Asia to a practice of unnecessary and undisclosed hysterectomies performed on Black women in the South so widespread it was coined the "Mississippi appendectomy." Eugenicists promoted anti-miscegenation laws and forced sterilization of those in prison and in poverty and of those with disabilities or mental illness. These practices have not died. In 2020, low-income immigrant women detained by ICE in Georgia were forcibly sterilized. As we hear rhetoric from the current administration about immigrants "poisoning the blood" of our country, it invites horrifying thoughts of what may be happening to immigrants currently being detained by ICE. Even more sinister, however, is a modern eugenics movement camouflaged by in vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF is increasingly popular, and rightfully so. Couples with fertility issues can conceive. Women can freeze eggs. Queer couples can have genetically related kids. IVF can also ostensibly prevent harm. IVF clinics might screen embryos for sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis, BRCA1, and Down syndrome. Things get confusing and uncomfortable, however, when we try to define what harms are worth preventing. In a world where whiteness and conventional beauty are tightly coupled with success, couldn't selecting for these features be a way to minimize a child's future suffering? Most sperm donor companies have a height minimum of 5'9". Harvard graduate egg and sperm donors are highly sought after. While it's hard to fault parents for wanting the best for their children, as a geneticist, it is concerning to me how much stock people put into the inheritance of such complex and environmentally influenced traits. With biotech companies explicitly offering genetic testing, I am even more concerned. Last October, Helios Genomics offered to boost a couple's future child's IQ via genetic screening. Nucleus Genomics recently took this a shocking step further by announcing it is offering genetic testing for traits like eye color, hair color, height, BMI, and IQ. Companies perform these screens with polygenic risk scoring, which makes use of genetic mutations identified from large scale population studies to be associated with a complex trait like intelligence. But these findings are just that: associations. We barely understand the true, context-dependent function of all the genes and mutations associated with complex traits. The idea that a company could confidently boast a six-point increase in a trait as socially and environmentally modified as intelligence is naïve at best and deceptive at worst. It also plays directly into the ideals of eugenics: that all social disparities and ailments are genetically determined, and that there is one correct way to be. Amid devastating cuts to everything from Medicaid to education, it is curious that one of the few spaces the Trump administration has pledged to increase federal funding is in vitro fertilization. Is this a random act of kindness amid an onslaught of cruelties? Or is it one of several strategies for breeding a homogenous generation of nationalistic Americans—ones with "good genes" and predetermined allegiances to the regime (thanks to $1,000 savings accounts established in their name from birth)? In this modern era of eugenics, as immigrants are expelled while neo-Nazis spew hateful theories of "great replacement," it is no wonder American Eagle felt bold enough to declare that Sydney Sweeney has great genes. America must reject this renewed, government-endorsed eugenics. Scientists must think deeply about ramifications: Just because we can, or think we can, does not mean we should. IVF companies should be barred from making false promises about the heritability of traits like intelligence, BMI, and hair color. While fatal diseases like breast cancer are fair to select against, prospective parents should think twice about what is lost when selecting for subjective social norms. We all have great genes and we all deserve a society that embraces us, that makes us feel whole, and bold, and beautiful—like a pair of great jeans. Tania Fabo, MSc is an MD-PhD candidate in genetics at Stanford University, a Rhodes scholar, a Knight-Hennessy scholar, a Paul and Daisy Soros fellow, and a Public Voices fellow of The OpEd Project. Her PhD research focuses on the interaction between genetics and diet in colorectal cancer risk. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Darth Vader's lightsaber could cost you an arm and a leg
Darth Vader's lightsaber, used to chop off Luke Skywalker's hand in Star Wars classic "The Empire Strikes Back", went on display in London on Wednesday, ahead of its US sale next month. The prop has been described as the "Holy Grail" for Star Wars fans, with millions prepared to end up like Skywalker and give their right arm to own the iconic weapon. Reflecting that passion, it is predicted to fetch up to $3 million went it goes on sale in Los Angeles next month. "It's just an amazing piece of film history," Brandon Alinger, chief operating officer of the Propstore auction house selling the item, told AFP at a London preview of the sale's most important lots. "Is there any villain as significant, as memorable as Darth Vader? I don't think so, and this is his weapon," he added. Darth Vader wielded the "energy sword" during legendary fight scenes in both "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983). David Prowse, the actor behind Vader's mask, and stuntman Bob Anderson actually used two of the devices. One without a blade was clipped to the villain's belt while the other, which had a wooden blade attached, was used for the fight scenes. It is the battle-scarred item, albeit without the blade, that is up for sale, having been in the hands of a US individual for 40 years. "Somebody, literally, who Googled 'sell Star Wars film prop' came to us and said, 'I've got this thing to sell', and we were just floored," explained Propstore founder Stephen Lane. "There was no understanding that this thing even still existed -- it's a brand new discovery, which is incredibly exciting for Star Wars collectors." He compared its significance to the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz". Experts verified its authenticity by matching its dents and scratches to those seen on film. "Look at the big dent on the back, that's probably from (Luke Skywalker actor) Mark Hamill's lightsaber blade," Alinger explained while showing the device to AFP. While now likely worth millions, the item is actually an old camera-flash attachment with spare parts, such as the bubbles from behind a calculator pad, stuck on. Other items to be sold during the three-day auction, taking place September 4-6, include the bullwhip, belt and holster used by Harrison Ford in 1989's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". One collector will also get their hands on a neuralyzer used by Agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) to erase memories in "Men in Black" (1997). "This is used in the opening scene of the film," explained Ibrahim Faraj, consignments manager at Propstore in the UK. The item, whose LED display still works, is expected to sell for up to $150,000. jwp/jj
