Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has been critical SteamAI policy in several recent statements. According to industry veterans, Valve's requirement to disclose AI use on Steam doesn't make much sense and is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
Valve has required developers to disclose the use of AI-generated content in their Steam listings since January 2024. This mandate was added to the Steam Distribution Agreement, the company's standard contractual terms for software distribution on its platform. The policy followed several months' worth of reports alleging that Valve had banned some games containing AI-generated content from Steam. In a prepared statement released after the change, the company said the disclosure requirement would enable it to “release the majority of games” that rely on generative AI.
Game Devs Take a Stand Against Generative AI
In response to discussions surrounding generative AI, some game developers make their stance against it abundantly clear.
Epic Games boss says Steam's AI disclosure policy 'makes no sense'
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney took aim at Valve's AI policy in a number of messages posted on Twitter in late November 2025. Responding to a tweet calling for Valve to drop the AI Disclosure label, the executive said the mandate “doesn't make sense for game stores,” where the number of Releggen titles is growing. in any shape or form. A July report from Totally Human Media supports Sweeney's observation, revealing that one in five Steam games released in 2025 will use AI. The same source estimates that only 7% of all titles on the platform reveal, concluding that AI adoption among game developers is growing rapidly.
The 'Made with AI' label will soon be embedded in almost all games, predicts the Epic CEO
Sweeney clarified that he is not generally opposed to AI labels, acknowledging their relevance in contexts where authorship or ownership rights are critical, such as art exhibitions and content licensing platforms. However, as a growing number of game developers embrace AI, he argues that the label is losing much of its meaning for platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store, where he expects it will soon need to be implemented in almost every catalog.
Epic Boss compares Steam's AI label to shampoo brand disclosure
Sweeney's Nov. 27 comments received a polarizing response from social media users. A post challenging his belief that “customers deserve to know” about AI use prompted the executive to double down on his stance. “We can have a developer mandate disclosure of what brand of shampoo they use,” Sweeney said, adding that if AI disclosure is mandated, there's no reason to stop at AI use alone. While some users pointed out that developers' shampoo preferences aren't as consequential to game development as AI use, Sweeney didn't respond further.
Why did AI stop being used? We may have mandatory disclosure of what brand of shampoo the developer uses. Customers deserve to know.
Award-winning Dev Pushes Back Against Sweeney's Faith in 'Slop Machines'
Among the most vocal parts of online communities, there is a growing belief that AI use is associated with low-quality titles. This sentiment extends beyond consumers; Thomas Bithell, developer of the critically acclaimed puzzle platformer Thomas was aloneSweeney's AI comments “actually said.” Posting on BlueSky on November 27, the award-winning developer was direct in his criticism of Sweeney's support for generative AI. “Imagine that you need slop machines to do your job, that you convince yourself that everyone needs them,” Bithell wrote.
Generative AI isn't going away on Steam or elsewhere
A recent controversy has highlighted that ARC Raiders'Use of AI Even some of today's most popular and critically acclaimed games are not immune to criticism for incorporating generative AI. However, if Sweeney's predictions prove correct and the industry adopts such technologies widely, AI use could become commonplace among gamers and developers alike. In that case, Valve could again revise its Steam policies, which currently mandate AI disclosure at a basic level, recognizing only two official labels: pre-generated and live-generated-in terms of whether the AI content is bundled with the game or created in real-time.
Steam's pre-generated label applies not only to visuals and music but also to AI-generated code, which may be the most widespread form of AI use in game development today. According to the 2025 Stack Overflow survey, 84% of the platform's users already rely on AI tools or intend to adopt them soon, with professional developers generally expressing a more favorable attitude toward such tools than beginners learning to code. While the survey doesn't provide an industry-specific breakdown — making it unclear, for example, whether web developers use AI more than game developers — its findings suggest that Steam's AI-generated content label may already be outdated because Valve is applying it to code and art alike.
Source: Steam
