Epic Games details how it's embracing generative AI in Unreal Engine

Published 17 June 2026 · tech

During The State of Unreal keynote at Unreal Fest on Wednesday, Epic Games revealed just how it's embracing generative AI in Unreal Engine (UE). Along

During The State of Unreal keynote at Unreal Fest on Wednesday, Epic Games revealed just how it's embracing generative AI in Unreal Engine (UE). Along with offering the first details on Unreal Engine 6 (UE6), the company discussed new features for Unreal Engine 5.8, which it also released on Wednesday. As part of the latest update, Epic is offering an experimental Model Context Protocol (MCP) plugin that will allow developers to hook gen AI models such as Claude and Gemini into Unreal Engine. It's looking to make the MCP an integral part of UE6. Marcus Wassmer, the head of Epic's development team, wrote in a blog post that the gen AI models can act as "creativity and productivity multipliers so that teams can focus their efforts on the essential creative and technical tasks of development rather than time on time-consuming manual tasks." The blog post went on to state that, "our goal for UE6 is to greatly reduce the tedious work in authoring content to leave more time for creative exploration, and increase the amount of iterations a team can make to polish their content. UE6 will ship with tools and workflows where you can choose to bring your own favorite models, battletested against internal development and in UEFN [Unreal Engine for Fortnite]." Unreal Engine 5.8 ships today with experimental MCP server support: Your sources, your pipeline and your workflow—simply configure the MCP plugin and connect to any agent.

Get familiar with the MCP server and the PCG Primitive Plugin today and see what teams can build together:... pic.twitter.com/Ca5yZIH443 — Unreal Engine (@UnrealEngine) June 17, 2026 Epic gave a demonstration of Claude Code connecting to UE, then pulling objects from an asset library and placing them in a virtual living room. Developers can still move the objects around manually in the UE editor. The company also showed how a developer might use Claude Code in UE to build a city that can be automatically adjusted as assets like parks are added. Along with modifying assets, gen AI models can adjust factors like lighting and match atmospheric conditions to real-world examples. In a video showing off Unreal Engine 5.8, Epic suggested that developers could use the likes of Claude to "automate asset creation, testing and optimization. The plugin can access core UE systems such as blueprints, assets, levels, materials, meshes and many more." It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that Epic is going all in on gen AI in UE6. Back in November, CEO Tim Sweeney suggested that a "made with AI" tag may be "relevant to art exhibits for authorship disclosure, and to digital content licensing marketplaces where buyers need to understand the rights situation.