Tim Sweeney calls Valve's Steam AI disclosures irresponsible as Unreal Engine doubles down on AI

Epic boss Tim Sweeney blasts Steam for putting AI tags on games -- says move is 'irresponsible of Valve'

He argues that AI tools are just tools, and that developers that use them shouldn't be penalized. After Epic revealed its plan for Unreal Engine 6, CEO Tim Sweeney said in an interview that Valve should stop requiring developers from disclosing if they used AI in making their game. The Epic chief executive made the statement to PC Gamer as he was talking about the use of AI tools in game development. The upcoming version of Unreal Engine 6 will come with AI integrations, which will supposedly make it easier for programmers, developers, and everyone else working in the gaming industry to build games. However, the use of AI tools still carries a stigma among players to the point that titles with this disclosure get significantly fewer reviews and are often viewed less favorably. He says that AI tools are useful for streamlining boring, repetitive, and menial labor, like reviewing code for over an hour to find an error or doing the rigging work required to make a 3D model move realistically. While it was unfortunate that some AI tech companies trained their models on stolen data, the Epic chief executive said that the AI industry has changed and is now moving towards better practices, especially when it comes to training data. He even pointed at Adobe, which he says is ensuring the provenance of the data it used for training its AI. However, PC Gamer pointed out that Epic uses Nano Banana and GPT Image, which do not claim stringent AI training data controls, and that the Unreal Engine's AI integrations include models such as Gemini, which have been accused of copyright infringement. "I think the main usage case that we've seen within Epic, and we're seeing developers actually find gainful, is using AI to reduce the drudge work. The software is still architected by software architects, and they're still writing the important parts of code, and artists are still coming up with a creative vision for characters, deciding between concepts," Sweeney told the publication. He also added, "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 wish list 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." The Epic executive has a point here, as AI can indeed be a useful productivity tool if used correctly and ethically. But even if that was the case, Valve still requires developers to add the AI-generated content disclosure, which could have a negative impact on reviews and ratings. While the Steam platform does not require the disclosure of the use of AI-powered tools in the developers' workflow, they're required to note it if AI-generated assets appear in the game or in marketing material. This would presumably include assets that have been partially built using AI tools or were based on AI-generated content. According to market research platform Game Oracle, titles that had the generative AI disclosure received 53% less reviews than the same type of game that did not have it. Furthermore, it's more likely to get a negative review. However, it also conceded that several other factors could be at play here, like studios substituting creativity and the proper development process with AI tools, resulting in titles that are obviously AI slop. Sweeney argues that AI is just a tool for productivity that could help game developers create unique content. The AI disclosure warning on Steam games, in theory, should not influence how games are perceived -- after all, what should matter to gamers is the experience of playing the game. Unfortunately, the controversies surrounding AI are negatively affecting the reputation of titles that use these tools. When paired with studios that substitute AI for real creativity, it's understandable why this AI warning has such a negative impact on game titles. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Epic Games boss calls Steam AI disclosures "really irresponsible of Valve" as they make it "much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success"

"You have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product" Fortnite developer and publisher Epic Games has been in the limelight for its creators' stance on generative AI - and it seems it'll continue to be, as CEO Tim Sweeney speaks on the topic once more, specifically in relation to what he calls Valve's "irresponsible" AI disclosures on Steam. It comes up in a recent interview with PC Gamer, in which Sweeney explains how AI could be a valuable tool for smaller devs. "If you have a game with a really unique look and feel, you need unique content, and AI is a path to getting that with a degree of economy that makes it competitive with Fab or scanning or other things, but works for a larger category of objects," states the Epic lead. He refers to an example of making a flower pot model for a game. "The value is not in creating a perfect flower pot. It will be an absolute folly to spend a million dollars creating a flower pot, because the real value is in building the scene and building the game and building the narrative, and the gameplay, and making it awesome, and giving it a unique feel, and making something that appeals to gamers." Apparently, this process - "giving it a unique feel" - can rely on AI use. And that, according to Sweeney, makes the attitude folks have toward AI "unfortunate" - as well as Valve's insistence that devs disclose whether they've used any AI in games released via Steam. "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 wish list it, and if you want to play it on Steam, then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product." Sweeney says that results in "a hater community trying to kill the game," going on to criticize the AI disclosures on Steam. "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." It's important to note that this isn't the first time Sweeney has shared this take. Last year, he said digital storefronts (like Steam) should drop "the AI tag" because "it makes no sense" when "AI will be involved in nearly all future production." He doubled down on this later, saying, "I hate to see Valve confiscate ever more opportunity from small developers." It's not an unpopular opinion among other Epic staff, either. Stephanie Arnette, who serves as senior external development manager on Fortnite, stated that the goal of AI "is to make us more efficient" and not to "take all our jobs." Suffice to say, that's not how many other devs (and consumers) feel... hence the so-called "hater community" Sweeney claims is out to get games with an AI disclosure on Steam. It's a hot topic right now, to say the least. I doubt it'll stop being one, either, as generative AI penetrates more and more aspects of development - and, well, everything. I, for one, am very happy with Valve's system, though. Here's hoping it doesn't change.

Tim Sweeney Admits Epic's Unreal Engine AI Tools Risk 'AI slop', but Calls them an Accelerant for Real Creators

At last week's Unreal Fest in Chicago, Epic Games unveiled the integration of AI tools like Claude and Gemini into Unreal Engine 5.8 (and the upcoming Unreal Engine 6) through an MCP server. As with all things related to AI, the news received a somewhat mixed response from the development and gaming community, especially as fears of "AI slop" become rampant. In an interview with IGN, Epic Games founder, CEO, and majority shareholder Tim Sweeney admitted that there's the risk of that, but likened it to the "asset flip" of this new generation of games, asserting that low quality games will still exist but also that these AI tools will prove to be an accelerant in the hands of professional creators, whether they are indie studios or triple-A teams. The whole space is moving so fast. We recognized early on that Epic should just broadly enable everybody to use the tools they prefer and be able to plug them into Unreal Engine in any way they want. We didn't go out to build like the Unreal Engine coding model, rather, we built an MCP server so that people could bring Claude code, Gemini, or whatever tool they prefer and connect it. Every week or two, there are going to be new capabilities coming out with lots of different companies competing, and we want to be able to support them all and put each game developer in charge of how they want to integrate AI tools into their pipelines to get maximum usefulness out of it and figure out what really gets acceleration maximized. Gaming has always been driven by great games built by great development teams and that will continue to be the case. Every generation has had its stereotypical low quality games, from just plain old bad games to asset flips and now we'll have AI slop. But in the hands of awesome professional creators and serious indies building a game, these tools are just an accelerant. And just as the industry moved from pixel art to Photoshop and then from 2D to 3D, these are just going to be ways to make content more efficiently and avoiding the drudgery of handwiring a giant blueprint and debugging really complicated problems in a program. Sweeney also acknowledged two points: first, that Epic Games does not have the resources to create a new model of their own, which is why they decided to integrate existing ones and also allow developers to add other custom models; second, that it will be up to developers to not exaggerate when it comes to relying on AI tools, which could become quite costly in its own right as token prices go up. Efficiency will be the name of the game. Ultimately, using these tools while developing in Unreal Engine is completely optional and entirely in the hands of creators, Epic confirmed once again. EVP of development Marcus Wassmer said in the interview: I think the main thing is you want to make sure of is to use AI to reduce all of the tedium. All the tedious tasks, like, you don't need an engineer to go and spend half a day doing root cause analysis on a crash if you can have a thing do that for you in 20 minutes and then tell them what's going on so they can spend that time optimizing the engine instead, helping a content creator, or whatever. Some developers and publishers have already embraced AI, while others are reticent. Which trend prevails in the next couple of years remains to be seen. Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.

Valve Is "Irresponsible" To Force AI Disclosures on Steam, Epic CEO Says, While Unreal Engine 6 Doubles Down on AI

In the past few months, video game publishers and developers have been going all in on generative AI with the justification that it speeds up and improves development. In the attempt to help gamers make informed choices about their purchases, Valve has started enforcing AI disclosures on Steam, which Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney believes is irresponsible of the company, as it has a negative impact. "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 wish list 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," Sweeney said to PC Gamer in a new interview. "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." While the Epic Games CEO isn't entirely wrong on the matter, as we have already seen backlash for games whose Steam store page features an AI disclosure even before their launch, Valve is definitely not irresponsible in doing so. Customers have the right to know how the product they may purchase is made and should have all the information needed to make a choice that aligns with their beliefs and their demand for consumer transparency. To be fair, it's not surprising to see Tim Sweeney staunchly defending the use of AI in game development, as Epic Games' upcoming Unreal Engine 6 is going all-in with AI integration. The CEO doubled down on his stance in the interview with PC Gamer, saying that AI use in general helps developers spend more time on what matters: narrative and gameplay. "You go to a library, like the Fab Content site or the Unity Asset Store, and buy a flower pot there. And then there's a whole economy around creating content. That's nice, but it gives you a fixed set of objects, and scanning only works for things that already exist in the world -- you can't scan an alien. And the content libraries only work for things that have been created. If you have a game with a really unique look and feel, you need unique content, and AI is a path to getting that with a degree of economy that makes it competitive with Fab or scanning or other things, but works for a larger category of objects," Sweeney said. "The value is not in creating a perfect flower pot. It will be an absolute folly to spend a million dollars creating a flower pot, because the real value is in building the scene and building the game and building the narrative, and the gameplay, and making it awesome, and giving it a unique feel, and making something that appeals to gamers." Unfortunately, it's clear how AI is being used by publishers as an excuse to lay-off actual developers, so it's difficult not to see the technology as a disruptive force in the gaming industry. As of now, automated models are definitely not capable of developing a video game by themselves, as seen in a recent GTA 6 -inspired project which started last week, but what will happen in the future when it will be able to? Only time will tell. Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.