Epic CEO Speaks Out Against Valve’s Mandatory AI Disclosure on Steam

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney explains why he’s opposed to Steam’s mandatory disclosure of AI-generated content.

Since 2024, Valve has required Developers to disclose the use of generative AI in their games. Often, even for long-standing companies like Sega, player backlash is extremely negative when it’s discovered that AI is being used in game development.

Tim Sweeney Calls Steam’s AI Disclosure Policy Irresponsible

Epic recently announced that Unreal Engine 6 will see more AI integration than ever before. They claim this will make development less tedious and enable faster releases.

Now, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is explaining why he believes this mandatory disclosure is unfair to Developers and forces them to choose between slower development times and potentially losing out to competitors or being hated by a community of players for embracing this new technology.

“It’s unfortunate we’re in this situation,” he said in an interview with PC Gamer. “It’s unfortunate that so many developers now are put into this position. If you want to launch a game, and get it as widely publicized as possible, you’ve got to put it on Steam so people can wishlist it, and if you want to play it on Steam, then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product, and now there is a hater community trying to kill the game.

“I think it’s really irresponsible of Valve. They shouldn’t do it, because it makes it much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success. You have to choose from either not using tools that can make you way more productive, and probably failing due to competition that does.”

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