Key Notes
- Valve says AI accelerates an existing cloning problem and favors community-building and ongoing improvements over policing developers’ choice of tools.
- Steam still requires disclosures for AI-created content consumed by players, and developers must hold adequate rights to the material they publish.
- Next Fest combines broad initial exposure with later personalization, while Valve continues to consider improvements to discovery.
Valve says generative AI is accelerating game cloning on Steam, but it does not want to dictate which development tools studios can use.
Tom Giardino and Marc Wilkinson discussed the issue at Steam Indie Connect in South Korea on October 27. Inven reported their answers to developers concerned about clones and low-quality releases crowding the store.
Valve Leaves Tool Choices With Developers
“We don’t want to be gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn’t use,” Giardino said, according to the report.
Giardino advised studios to build community trust and improve their original games continually, making more than a single mechanic distinguish them from imitators. That offers no immediate guarantee of protection for a small team facing a fast-moving competitor.
The distinction between allowing a production method and accepting everything it produces is important. Valve’s published requirements continue to govern what can be sold on Steam, regardless of the software used to make it.
AI Disclosures and Content Rules Still Apply
Steam’s Content Survey asks about AI-created material that ships with a game and is consumed by players, including artwork, audio, narrative and localization. It says efficiency improvements from AI-powered development tools are not the focus of that section.
The survey separates pre-generated content made during production from material generated while a game runs. For the former, developers must promise that the game contains no illegal or infringing content and matches its marketing. Valve says it evaluates the output alongside other content during its prerelease review.
Games using live generation face an additional requirement: developers must describe safeguards intended to prevent illegal output. Completing the disclosure does not exempt a release from Steam’s other rules.
The platform’s publishing guidelines prohibit content a developer does not own or have adequate rights to use, alongside other restricted material. The survey also directs rights holders to separate copyright and trademark complaint channels.
These are different questions from whether a game resembles another release or whether a player considers it low quality. The event comments did not establish a new test for every disputed similarity, nor did they announce that Steam would abandon review.
We covered Tim Sweeney’s criticism of Steam’s AI disclosures. Valve’s latest comments make developer choice central to its approach, while its documentation still requires information about AI-generated content that reaches players.
Next Fest Balances Initial Exposure and Personalization
Wilkinson acknowledged complaints about low-quality games at Next Fest and said Valve was considering improvements. He did not announce a completed fix.
The official Next Fest guide provides more detail. Most placements are randomized during the first few days, with exceptions for explicitly named lists and personalized sections. Later, logged-in users see carousels shaped by behavior during the event and what similar players have been playing.
Developers can check the event preview page, their selected categories and their store tags to see whether a game is positioned correctly. A released demo is required to appear. Those checks address discoverability; they do not provide a guarantee of prominent placement.
Steam’s broader visibility documentation also describes recommendation systems driven by customer interest and response. It says wishlists generally do not determine algorithmic exposure, with exceptions such as Popular Upcoming, although they remain useful for release and discount notifications.
For studios preparing a demo, the immediate task remains making the store page accurate and identifying the players most likely to enjoy the game. Valve is keeping participation open while refining discovery, rather than promising that every original release will automatically rise above its imitators.
