Valve says it will not ban AI-made games from Steam. It will not police which AI tools developers use.
Valve's Steam team spoke at Steam Indie Connect on October 27. Tom Giardino and Marc Wilkinson took questions from indie developers.
Some indie studios get emails threatening AI clones of their games. One demanded 200 dollars in Steam items within 24 hours.
Giardino called extortion a matter for law enforcement. He said Valve wants to hear about reported cases and will look into them.
Valve will not tell developers which tools they should or should not use. It will not ban AI games or police AI tools.
Developers have always copied ideas seen at Steam Next Fest. AI has simply sped up the pace of copying, Giardino said.
For the first two days, Next Fest shows games almost at random. Personal picks take over after that, Wilkinson explained.
The random start stops big studios from gaming the system. Wilkinson said many at Valve are working on how to fix the trade-off.
Valve advised indies to build a website, talk to players, and earn trust. A loyal community cannot be copied.
The second defense is constant improvement. A single game idea can be copied fast. A game that keeps growing cannot.
What drives visibility is the number of people buying and playing the game. Wishlists only measure marketing success.
Read the full explainer: what happened, why it matters, and what happens next for Steam developers.
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