Valve's latest Steam Next Fest has been plagued by games using AI, drawing the attention of former developers like Chet Faliszek, who says the storefront is now "overwhelmed by slop" – but what do current folks at the company think?

Well, they're unsurprisingly aware of the AI-fueled issue, at least, as Tom Giardino and Marc Wilkinson from Valve's Steam Business Team reveal during the Steam Indie Connect event in South Korea (as per Inven Global).

Giardino first explains that Valve doesn't want to control what tools – in this case, generative AI – devs can use. "We don't want to be gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn't use," he says.

According to him, that should be up to the devs themselves, and clones have existed for a long time – much longer than the AI problem, but AI has accelerated the debacle.

Giardino's solution is simple: "Rather than relying on a single mechanic that someone can easily copy, you need to keep growing your game by adding features, personality, and creativity that stem from your own perspective." It's far easier said than done, however.

When asked specifically about Steam Next Fest and how it's been flooded by such AI copies, Wilkinson chimes in, stating that most of the coverage surrounding the clones was across the first couple of days of the event, before more "personalized" recommendations made the front page. He describes how Steam Next Fest is a bit random at first in an attempt to prevent abuse of the system from folks looking to gain immediate visibility.

Source link