Unlike a majority of CEOs, Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney is rather vocal, sharing his thoughts on industry news via a variety of means. Taking part in a new interview, the CEO commented on Valve’s AI disclosure policy – calling the practice “irresponsible.”

Taking part in an interview with the publication PCGamer, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney was asked about a range of topics, from their recently-announced ‘Team Open’ to Epic’s relationship with Valve. In discussing Steam’s new AI disclosure system – wherein developers must state if and how they used GenAI during game development – Sweeney offered a response typical of a CEO heavily invested in the technology, stating:

“It's unfortunate that so many developers now are put into this position. If you want to launch a game, and get it as widely publicized as possible, you've got to put it on Steam so people can wish list it, and if you want to play it on Steam, then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product, and now there is a hater community trying to kill the game.”

Sweeney continued, “I think it's really irresponsible of Valve. They shouldn't do it, because it makes it much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success. You have to choose from either not using tools that can make you way more productive, and probably failing due to competition that does.”

It is worth noting that Sweeney appears to be approaching this question from a single angle, ignoring the wider issues with and implications of GenAI in game development – as well as the fact that many players simply don’t like it.

As mentioned, Epic Games has been increasingly embracing AI in its game development, and so it makes sense that Sweeney would take such a position.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Sweeney’s claims? Do you agree? Should AI disclosures be enforced further? Let us know down below.

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At last week's Unreal Fest in Chicago, Epic Games unveiled the integration of AI tools like Claude and Gemini into Unreal Engine 5.8 (and the upcoming Unreal Engine 6) through an MCP server. As with all things related to AI, the news received a somewhat mixed response from the development and gaming community, especially as fears of "AI slop" become rampant. In an interview with IGN, Epic Games founder, CEO, and majority shareholder Tim Sweeney admitted that there's the risk of that, but likened it to the "asset flip" of this new generation of games, asserting that low quality games […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/tim-sweeney-unreal-engine-ai-tools-accelerant-real-creators/

During the State of Unreal 2026 presentation, streamed live from Chicago's Unreal Fest, Epic Games announced the launch of Unreal Engine 5.8 and also talked in depth about the upcoming Unreal Engine 6, first teased last month during the Rocket League Championship Series 2026 in Paris. Founder, CEO, and majority shareholder Tim Sweeney took the stage to explain that UE6 is about evolving how games are shipped and operated, not just improving rendering or world-building: The vision is that if you build things once in Unreal Engine 6, then you can have a game you can ship everywhere, including the […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/epic-games-unreal-engine-6-claude-gemini-developer-control/

There's light at the end of the tunnel of the incredibly protracted legal battle between Epic Games and Apple that began six years ago when Epic first introduced its own direct payment system in Fortnite, bypassing Apple's 30% fee on all transactions on iOS. The case has taken several major turns and been the cause of a lot of industry shuffling, but at long last, the popular battle royale is back on iOS devices in almost every region across the globe. The 'almost' stipulation applies to the fact that Fortnite is not back on iOS devices in Australia yet, despite […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/fortnite-back-on-app-store-worldwide/

Epic Games chief executive officer Tim Sweeney has announced that the company will lay off "over 1,000 Epic employees" in a note that was sent to staff at Epic this morning and later published publicly on Epic's website. The mass layoff is directly due to "the downturn in Fortnite" according to Sweeney's note, as he says, "I'm sorry we're here again." He was also quick to claim that the cuts "aren't related to AI." This is similar to a mass layoff Epic held back in 2023, where it cut 830 employees and raised the price of Fortnite's in-game premium currency, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/epic-games-mass-layoff-1000-people-fortnite-downturn-cuts-arent-related-to-ai/

For years now, Epic Games and Google have been engaged in a back and forth, with the Fortnite maker seeing its titles removed from Android’s Play Store, necessitating users to find alternate means to play the popular Battle Royale on Android. Finally, after countless court sessions and an evolving environment, Google and Epic have finally settled their differences, with Fortnite set to return to the Google Play Store “soon.”

Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed that “Google is opening up Android all the way with robust support for competing stores, competing payments, and a better deal for all developers. So, we've settled all of our disputes worldwide. THANKS GOOGLE!”

As a result, Sweeney revealed that “Fortnite will return to Google Play Store worldwide soon. Epic Games Store continues supporting Android worldwide alongside Windows and Mac, and installation on Android will become much easier later in 2026.”

Alongside this, Google themselves released a lengthy Android developers blog, confirming the details of this “new era for choice and openness” which includes:

• Expanded billing choice on Google Play for users and developers
• A new Registered App Stores program
• Lower pricing and new programs to support developers

The blog post concluded with a direct reference to the aforementioned Epic Games dispute, with Google stating: “With these updates, we have also resolved our disputes worldwide with Epic Games. We believe these changes will make for a stronger Android ecosystem with even more successful developers and higher-quality apps and games available across more form factors for everyone. We look forward to our continued work with the developer community to build the next generation of digital experiences.”

While there is no denying that Epic Games engaged in this years-long legal battle for self-serving reasons, the final result does seem to be one that will benefit the end users more than before. Full details on these changes and their planned rollout can be found HERE.

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KitGuru says: Who did you think would ultimately come out on top? Is this good for the wider industry as a whole? Let us know your thoughts down below.

The post Fortnite is officially coming back to the Google Play Store as all disputes are settled first appeared on KitGuru.

Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney has come out on top once again in his dispute with how platform holders dictate the relationship that developers have with their users. After starting disputes with both Apple and Google years ago, which initially took popular Epic Games titles like Fortnite off Android and iOS mobile platforms, Epic and Sweeney's dispute with Google has finally come to a close. To be clear, Fortnite has already made its return to iOS and Android when Epic was finally able to launch a mobile version of the Epic Games Store worldwide back in 2024 (though Australians had […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/fortnite-will-return-google-play-store-on-android-epic-games-ends-dispute-with-google/