{"id":1997233,"date":"2026-06-18T12:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1997233"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:13:13","slug":"vampire-survivors-studio-poncle-is-reviewing-its-fortnite-collaboration-after-the-state-of-unreal-show-and-epics-focus-on-generative-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1997233","title":{"rendered":"Vampire Survivors studio Poncle is &#8220;reviewing&#8221; its Fortnite collaboration after the State of Unreal show and Epic&#8217;s focus on generative AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Vampire Survivors studio Poncle is &#8220;reviewing&#8221; its Fortnite collaboration after the State of Unreal show and Epic&#8217;s focus on generative AI<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Getting it in the neck.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/artwork-for-Vampire-Survivors-on-the-left-showing-a-male-with-yellow-eyes-looking-intently-towards-the-camera-next-to-an-image-of-Peeley-from-Fortnite-on-the-right.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"artwork for Vampire Survivors on the left showing a male with yellow eyes looking intently towards the camera next to an image of Peeley from Fortnite on the right\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"artwork-for-Vampire-Survivors-on-the-left-showing-a-male-with-yellow-eyes-looking-intently-towards-the-camera-next-to-an-image-of-Peeley-from-Fortnite-on-the-right.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Victoria Phillips Kennedy avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1644925423.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Victoria Phillips Kennedy avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"1644925423.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/victoria-kennedy\">Victoria Phillips Kennedy<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      News Reporter<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-06-18T12:13:13+00:00\">June 18, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/fortnite-gen-ai-vampire-survivors-collaboration-reviewed-epic-poncle?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          1 comment<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"a8888b6d-5bc0-480f-a9ef-1f57b9dc36eb\" data-name=\"Fortnite\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Fortnite\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Fortnite\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Fortnite\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Fortnite\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Fortnite\" title=\"Follow Fortnite\"><br \/>\n  Follow Fortnite<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Last night, during its State of Unreal presentation, Epic unveiled a number of upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/fortnite\">Fortnite<\/a> collaborations with Control Resonant, Sonic Crossworlds Racing, Phantom Blade Zero, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/vampire-survivors-wins-best-game-at-bafta-game-awards\">the award-winning Vampire Survivors<\/a>. However, a mere matter of hours later, Vampire Survivors developer Poncle said it was &#8220;reviewing&#8221; its Fortnite collaboration due to Epic&#8217;s use of generative AI.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"State of Unreal 2026 Livestream\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xuMfmbzNzUU?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/xuMfmbzNzUU\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">State of Unreal 2026 Livestream<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>State of Unreal 2026 Livestream. <a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xuMfmbzNzUU\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Poncle made the declaration in response to a reddit post<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/VampireSurvivors\/comments\/1u8c1he\/comment\/os7ubrp\/\"> discussing Vampire Survivors&#8217; Fortnite collaboration<\/a>. &#8220;Following today&#8217;s news about gen AI usage by Epic to create all sorts of game assets, including Fortnite characters,&#8221; it wrote, &#8220;we&#8217;re currently &#8216;reviewing&#8217; our collaboration with Fortnite. We&#8217;ll let you know if anything moves forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Poncle didn&#8217;t specify which &#8220;news&#8221; it was referring to, but during last night&#8217;s State of Unreal presentation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/unreal-engine-5-8-ai-llm-engine\">Epic debuted an experimental plugin feature which is able to integrate gen AI tools such as Claude with Unreal Engine<\/a>. &#8220;What we&#8217;ve shown here today would take months to build by hand, but in the MCP server and Unreal, our artists were able to make this in days,&#8221; Michael Lentine, senior director of Epic Games&#8217; research and development department, said at the time. &#8220;When you lower the technical friction, you can iterate more and make better games.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Poncle could also be reacting to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZR2xbcf3Xyw\">video<\/a> from Epic detailing how it utilises tools such as Nano Banana &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/nanobanana.io\/\">described<\/a> as &#8220;an advanced AI image editing model that quickly gained attention for its exceptional prompt understanding, consistent character editing and scene preservation&#8221; &#8211; alongside Blender and Photoshop to create &#8220;digital art and content&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Generative AI remains hugely controversial, of course, raising substantial ethical and environmental concerns. It&#8217;s replicative rather than creative, for instance, and can be trained on art without an artist&#8217;s permission. Whether that violates copyright law is still being decided, but there are other concerns, such as the impact of AI on jobs, including those in the games industry. Many voice actors including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/solid-snake-and-commander-shepard-stars-discuss-threat-of-ai-on-voice-acting\">Jennifer Hale, David Hayter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/horizon-zero-dawn-developer-replacing-all-actors-with-robots-not-going-to-happen-says-aloy-voice-actress\">Ashly Burch<\/a> have shared their concerns about the exploitative use of technology. Poncle did not specify exactly why it&#8217;s launching a &#8216;review&#8217; following Epic&#8217;s news, or the steps it might take as a result, but Eurogamer has asked the developer for more information.<\/p>\n<p>In November of last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/epic-games-boss-tim-sweeney-says-steam-ai-disclosures-make-no-sense\">Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney said it no longer makes sense for developers to disclose AI use any more<\/a>, and we may as well ask what kind of shampoo they use. &#8220;AI will be involved in nearly all future production,&#8221; he said. Epic is no stranger to generative AI use, of course. In 2025, the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sag-aftra-files-unfair-labour-practice-charge-against-fortnite-maker-epic-following-ai-generated-darth-vader-voice-lines\">infamously recreated James Earl Jones&#8217; voice for Darth Vader<\/a> using the technology, albeit with the permission of the now-deceased actor&#8217;s family.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"twitter_wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Fortnite collabs coming in future: <\/p>\n<p>-Sonic Racing Crossworlds<br \/>-Vampire Survivors<br \/>-Control Resonant<br \/>-Phantom Blade Zero <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2DTFCaRqPv\">pic.twitter.com\/2DTFCaRqPv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Wario64 (@Wario64) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Wario64\/status\/2067255196065894533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"embed_placeholder\" data-type=\"targeting\" style=\"display: none\"><br \/>\n<span class=\"message\">To see this content please enable targeting cookies.<\/span><br \/>\n<button class=\"optanon-show-settings link\"><br \/>\nManage cookie settings<\/button><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<p>Generative AI is becoming increasingly commonplace in development. During this month&#8217;s Summer Game Fest, it transpired games such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crazy-taxi-world-tour-officially-announced-sega-immediately-upsets-everyone-by-announcing-it-used-generative-ai\">Crazy Taxi revival and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis are making use of generative AI<\/a>. At this time, a Crystal Dynamics representative told Eurogamer the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/tomb-raider-legacy-of-atlantis-comes-with-an-ai-disclaimer\">Legacy of Atlantis studios leveraged AI tools to &#8220;help our teams iterate on ideas faster and more efficiently, while ensuring that all finished content in the final product is human-crafted&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen if the other announced Fortnite collaborations might be similarly reviewed by their developers in light of the renewed AI discourse surrounding Epic. In April, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/phantom-blade-zero-studio-rejects-generative-ai\">Phantom Blade Zero studio S-Game released a statement shunning the controversial technology<\/a>, assuring its community that &#8220;every single piece of content in our game has been crafted by the hands of real artists&#8221;. It added it will &#8220;not use AI visual tech that could alter our artists&#8217; original creative intent&#8221; for Phantom Blade Zero. But, what of its Fortnite deal?<\/p>\n<p>Eurogamer has asked Sega, Remedy and S-Game for comment on the studios&#8217; upcoming collaborations with Epic, and will update when we hear more.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Last night, during its State of Unreal presentation, Epic unveiled a number of upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/fortnite\">Fortnite<\/a> collaborations with Control Resonant, Sonic Crossworlds Racing, Phantom Blade Zero, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/vampire-survivors-wins-best-game-at-bafta-game-awards\">the award-winning Vampire Survivors<\/a>. However, a mere matter of hours later, Vampire Survivors developer Poncle said it was &#8220;reviewing&#8221; its Fortnite collaboration due to Epic&#8217;s use of generative AI.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"State of Unreal 2026 Livestream\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xuMfmbzNzUU?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/xuMfmbzNzUU\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">State of Unreal 2026 Livestream<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>State of Unreal 2026 Livestream. <a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xuMfmbzNzUU\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Poncle made the declaration in response to a reddit post<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/VampireSurvivors\/comments\/1u8c1he\/comment\/os7ubrp\/\"> discussing Vampire Survivors&#8217; Fortnite collaboration<\/a>. &#8220;Following today&#8217;s news about gen AI usage by Epic to create all sorts of game assets, including Fortnite characters,&#8221; it wrote, &#8220;we&#8217;re currently &#8216;reviewing&#8217; our collaboration with Fortnite. We&#8217;ll let you know if anything moves forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Poncle didn&#8217;t specify which &#8220;news&#8221; it was referring to, but during last night&#8217;s State of Unreal presentation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/unreal-engine-5-8-ai-llm-engine\">Epic debuted an experimental plugin feature which is able to integrate gen AI tools such as Claude with Unreal Engine<\/a>. &#8220;What we&#8217;ve shown here today would take months to build by hand, but in the MCP server and Unreal, our artists were able to make this in days,&#8221; Michael Lentine, senior director of Epic Games&#8217; research and development department, said at the time. &#8220;When you lower the technical friction, you can iterate more and make better games.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Poncle could also be reacting to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZR2xbcf3Xyw\">video<\/a> from Epic detailing how it utilises tools such as Nano Banana &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/nanobanana.io\/\">described<\/a> as &#8220;an advanced AI image editing model that quickly gained attention for its exceptional prompt understanding, consistent character editing and scene preservation&#8221; &#8211; alongside Blender and Photoshop to create &#8220;digital art and content&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Generative AI remains hugely controversial, of course, raising substantial ethical and environmental concerns. It&#8217;s replicative rather than creative, for instance, and can be trained on art without an artist&#8217;s permission. Whether that violates copyright law is still being decided, but there are other concerns, such as the impact of AI on jobs, including those in the games industry. Many voice actors including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/solid-snake-and-commander-shepard-stars-discuss-threat-of-ai-on-voice-acting\">Jennifer Hale, David Hayter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/horizon-zero-dawn-developer-replacing-all-actors-with-robots-not-going-to-happen-says-aloy-voice-actress\">Ashly Burch<\/a> have shared their concerns about the exploitative use of technology. Poncle did not specify exactly why it&#8217;s launching a &#8216;review&#8217; following Epic&#8217;s news, or the steps it might take as a result, but Eurogamer has asked the developer for more information.<\/p>\n<p>In November of last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/epic-games-boss-tim-sweeney-says-steam-ai-disclosures-make-no-sense\">Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney said it no longer makes sense for developers to disclose AI use any more<\/a>, and we may as well ask what kind of shampoo they use. &#8220;AI will be involved in nearly all future production,&#8221; he said. Epic is no stranger to generative AI use, of course. In 2025, the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sag-aftra-files-unfair-labour-practice-charge-against-fortnite-maker-epic-following-ai-generated-darth-vader-voice-lines\">infamously recreated James Earl Jones&#8217; voice for Darth Vader<\/a> using the technology, albeit with the permission of the now-deceased actor&#8217;s family.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"twitter_wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Fortnite collabs coming in future: <\/p>\n<p>-Sonic Racing Crossworlds<br \/>-Vampire Survivors<br \/>-Control Resonant<br \/>-Phantom Blade Zero <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2DTFCaRqPv\">pic.twitter.com\/2DTFCaRqPv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Wario64 (@Wario64) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Wario64\/status\/2067255196065894533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"embed_placeholder\" data-type=\"targeting\" style=\"display: none\"><br \/>\n<span class=\"message\">To see this content please enable targeting cookies.<\/span><br \/>\n<button class=\"optanon-show-settings link\"><br \/>\nManage cookie settings<\/button><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<p>Generative AI is becoming increasingly commonplace in development. During this month&#8217;s Summer Game Fest, it transpired games such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crazy-taxi-world-tour-officially-announced-sega-immediately-upsets-everyone-by-announcing-it-used-generative-ai\">Crazy Taxi revival and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis are making use of generative AI<\/a>. At this time, a Crystal Dynamics representative told Eurogamer the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/tomb-raider-legacy-of-atlantis-comes-with-an-ai-disclaimer\">Legacy of Atlantis studios leveraged AI tools to &#8220;help our teams iterate on ideas faster and more efficiently, while ensuring that all finished content in the final product is human-crafted&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen if the other announced Fortnite collaborations might be similarly reviewed by their developers in light of the renewed AI discourse surrounding Epic. In April, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/phantom-blade-zero-studio-rejects-generative-ai\">Phantom Blade Zero studio S-Game released a statement shunning the controversial technology<\/a>, assuring its community that &#8220;every single piece of content in our game has been crafted by the hands of real artists&#8221;. It added it will &#8220;not use AI visual tech that could alter our artists&#8217; original creative intent&#8221; for Phantom Blade Zero. But, what of its Fortnite deal?<\/p>\n<p>Eurogamer has asked Sega, Remedy and S-Game for comment on the studios&#8217; upcoming collaborations with Epic, and will update when we hear more.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Vampire Survivors studio Poncle is &#8220;reviewing&#8221; its Fortnite collaboration after the State of Unreal show and Epic&#8217;s focus on generative AI Getting it in the neck. Image credit: Eurogamer News by Victoria Phillips Kennedy News Reporter Published on June 18, 2026 1 comment Follow Fortnite Last night, during its State of Unreal presentation, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1997233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1997233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1997233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1997233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1997233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}