The Australian STEM Videogame Challenge, a "free national videogame development competition for students," has confirmed that the rise of generative AI means this year's event will be the last.

The end of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Videogame Challenge was first reported on Reddit last week, when someone claiming to be a judge in the program said they'd received an email informing them that "after 12 wonderful years," the 2026 event would mark its end.

Speculation as to the cause of the program's cancellation focused primarily on the presence of AI in entries: Another self-proclaimed judge said the problem wasn't merely the use of AI in itself but that "some students just completely generate their games with AI. How do you mark that? You can't just give them a zero. It's so hard to tell what was or wasn't generated using AI, and especially hard since that's the way the industry is going."

That same person also suggested, however, that funding cutbacks could have been an even bigger factor in the decision, saying, "projects like this are the first to get cut" when government budgets get tight.

Now the Australian Council for Educational Research has confirmed that the cancellation was in fact due to AI.

"After more than a decade inspiring the next generation of young creators, the current 2026 Australian STEM Video Game Challenge will be the competition's final chapter," Cathy Zemaitis, Head of the Student Learning and Progress division at ACER, told PC Gamer.

"The decision was driven by the rapid and complex rise of generative AI in game development, making it harder to judge what students made themselves, and moving the program away from its original purpose."

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