At the Busan Indie Connect Festival 2026, Valve representatives confirmed that the company will not ban games created with generative AI on Steam. Developers must still disclose the use of such technologies, but Valve refuses to act as an arbiter regarding the quality or publication rights of these titles.
Valve addressed the issue of extortion, where unknown parties threaten indie studios with AI-generated clones of their games. Tom Giardino stated that the company is investigating these reports and advised developers to contact law enforcement. Valve suggests that studios protect their projects by releasing frequent updates and building loyal communities.
Regarding the influx of low-quality AI-generated content in the recent Next Fest, Valve attributed this to their storefront algorithm. The system displays games almost randomly during the first two days of the event. Meanwhile, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney criticized Valve's mandatory AI labeling policy, calling it a political act.
