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At a developer Q&A at the 2026 Busan Indie Connect Festival, Valve said that although Steam users are increasingly complaining about AI-generated assets and vibe-coded games, the company still has no intention of banning AI games and only requires developers to disclose their use of generative AI. Valve's Tom Giardino said it was the first time he had heard of developers receiving extortion emails threatening to publish AI clone games, promised to investigate, and advised those affected to contact law enforcement. Marc Wilkinson of Steam's business team explained that Demo showcases during the first two days of Next Fest are nearly random, with personalized recommendations only taking effect afterward, so more low-quality content will surface, but he stressed that this keeps things fair and that the company is still considering solutions. Giardino also advised indie developers to build a loyal community and keep updating their games to withstand AI-generated clones, and said cloning is not a new phenomenon—AI has simply accelerated it.
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Valve has no intention of taking action against AI Slop and clone games on SteamDevelopments
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Oct 30
Solidot
Valve has no intention of taking action against AI Slop and clone games on Steam
At the Steam Indie Connect event in South Korea, Valve stated that it will not restrict developers' use of AI tools, nor will it take action against AI Slop and clone games on Steam. Tom Giardino of the Steam Business Team said that whether to use AI is up to developers themselves, and that cloning ideas existed before generative AI became popular. Valve employee Marc Wilkinson mentioned that more than 7,000 games flooded into Steam Next Fest, and possibly half of them could be considered AI Slop.
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Oct 29
TechSpot
Valve Refuses to Ban AI Games on Steam, Says It Only Requires Disclosure and Will Continue Investigating
Speaking at a developer Q&A at the 2026 Busan Indie Connect Festival, Valve said that although Steam users are increasingly complaining about AI-generated assets and vibe-coded games, the company still will not ban AI games and only requires developers to disclose their use of generative AI. Valve's Tom Giardino said he had heard for the first time that a developer received an extortion email threatening to publish AI clone games, and promised to investigate and advised those affected to contact law enforcement. Valve also explained that Next Fest's homepage displays games almost randomly during the first two days, so more low-quality content surfaces, but stressed that this keeps things fair and that the company is still thinking about solutions.
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Valve on AI-cloned games: rely on community and continuous updates to protect indie games
Tom Giardino of Valve's Steam business team advised indie developers at a Korean developer event to build a loyal community and continuously update their games to fend off AI-generated clones. He said cloning is not a new phenomenon and that AI has merely accelerated it, and mentioned that some developers have received extortion emails demanding payment or their games would be replicated by AI; Valve said it will follow up on reported cases. Marc Wilkinson of the Steam business team also explained that Demo showcases during the first two days of Next Fest are nearly random, and that personalized recommendations only take effect afterward.
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