Steam's AI-generated games policy, and what Valve, Microsoft and Epic actually said about AI clones, 'AI slop' and the 'AI is theft' fight

Steam's AI-generated games policy doesn't ban AI. It asks developers to disclose AI-made content that ships with a game or is generated while it runs, and Valve reviews that content like any other. That policy is now under pressure from two directions. On October 27, 2026, Valve staff faced developers worried about AI-made clones and "AI slop," and on October 26 Kotaku argued that Microsoft and Epic Games, both heavy users of AI, had started treating AI copies of their own games as theft. This analysis sets out what each company actually said, using Valve's own rules, Epic's terms and the reporting behind the headlines. For the broader fight over AI and image and media models, see our story on a crawler carrying a Roblox address that, Open3DLab says, took 145.5 GB of 3D models.

This analysis is based on Valve's Steamworks documentation and January 2024 announcement, Epic Games' Terms of Service (effective September 10, 2026), reporting by Inven Global, Kotaku, Game Developer, PC Gamer, Video Games Chronicle and TechRadar, and release counts published by Joost van Dreunen (using GYLD data) and Sulka Haro, checked October 29, 2026.

The short version

• Steam's rule: disclose "Pre-Generated" AI content (made during development and shipped) and "Live-Generated" content (made while the game runs). Efficiency gains from AI tools are "not the focus." Live-generated adult sexual content isn't shipped "at this time."
• How common it is: GYLD data published by van Dreunen counts 8,255 AI-disclosed Steam releases in 2026 through October 20, 33.9% of releases. Haro's census put it at "roughly one in three" by mid-2026.
• Valve on clones (October 27): it doesn't want to be "gatekeepers" over tools; extortion by clone threats is closer to a law-enforcement matter; report it to Valve anyway.
• Microsoft and Epic: both have acted against AI-assisted browser ports of their games, according to Kotaku. Epic's terms bar using its content to train generative AI. Neither company has said AI is theft in those words; that's Kotaku's framing.

What is Steam's AI-generated games policy?

Valve announced its approach on January 9, 2024, saying the change "will enable us to release the vast majority of games that use it." The rules sit in the content survey every developer fills in before release. Valve's Steamworks documentation defines two kinds of AI content:

• Pre-Generated: "Any kind of content that ships with your game and is consumed by players," made with AI tools during development. Valve says it will "evaluate the output of AI generated content in your game the same way we evaluate all non-AI content."
• Live-Generated: "Any kind of content created with the help of AI tools while the game is running." Developers must "tell us what kind of guardrails you're putting on your AI to ensure it's not generating illegal content."

Developers also promise that their game won't include illegal or infringing content and that it matches their marketing. Valve says it doesn't want to ship Adult Only Sexual Content made with Live-Generated AI "at this time." And games that use an outside AI service with running costs must sell access through a payment method Steam supports.

In January 2026, Valve rewrote the form. Video Games Chronicle reported on January 17, 2026 that the revision clarified that AI-powered developer tools, such as code helpers, don't need disclosing. The current Steamworks text says: "Efficiency gains through the use of these tools is not the focus of this section." The disclosure is about what players see, hear and read.

How many Steam games disclose AI?

Valve doesn't publish a count. Two outside analyses of Steam store pages agree that the share has risen fast:

Share of new Steam releases with an AI disclosure, by year

percent of releases

010203040

1.510.718.833.9

2023202420252026 (to Oct 20)

Show the data

Year	Share of releases
2023	1.5
2024	10.7
2025	18.8
2026 (to Oct 20)	33.9

The GYLD figures, published by analyst Joost van Dreunen on October 27, 2026, count 195 AI-disclosed releases in 2023 (1.5%), 1,916 in 2024 (10.7%), 3,902 in 2025 (18.8%) and 8,255 in 2026 through October 20 (33.9%). Van Dreunen discloses that he advises and invests in GYLD. Sulka Haro's census of about 53,600 releases from July 2023 to July 2026, published July 13, 2026, found "roughly one in three new Steam games" carrying the disclosure by mid-2026. Haro notes that the 2023 flags were added retroactively, since disclosure only began in January 2024.

Both counts have the same limit: they measure what developers disclose, not how many games use AI.

What did Valve say about AI clones and "AI slop"?

Valve answered developers in person at "Steam Indie Connect," a developer event on October 27, 2026 that it co-hosted with the Busan Indie Connect Festival's organizing committee and the Korea Creative Content Agency. Inven Global's Doohyun Lee reported the Q&A; the quotes below are as Inven Global's English version read on October 29, 2026.

A developer described extortion emails threatening to clone their game with AI and release it first unless paid. Tom Giardino of Valve's Steam business team said it was the first he had heard of such cases. "We don't want to be gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn't use," he said. He said clones predate AI, which has sped them up, and described extortion as closer to a law-enforcement issue than a platform one, adding: "If you report such cases to us, we want to look into them and help in whatever way we can." Valve announced no new policy.

On low-quality games, Marc Wilkinson explained that during the first two days of Steam Next Fest games are shown almost at random, before personalized recommendations take over, and said many critical articles were based on those two days. "We recognize that as a trade-off, some low-quality games get exposed," he said, per Inven Global, adding that "many of our staff are deliberating on how to address this problem." Giardino said that three years ago Valve had to persuade developers to join when there were "only 50 or 100 titles," and that participants now number in the thousands.

The fear behind the questions is real for some studios. PC Gamer reported on October 20, 2026 that Digital Sun, the studio behind Moonlighter, moved a planned public playtest of its game ReVamp to a manually approved Discord group, saying: "If you can't show your game to the world without fearing it'll be cloned, something's broken." The studio linked a surge in fast clones to the rollout of Claude Opus 5.5, per PC Gamer.

What did Microsoft say about AI?

Microsoft's gaming chief has drawn a line on AI in its own games, not against AI. When Asha Sharma was named head of Microsoft Gaming in February 2026, she said, as Video Games Chronicle reported on February 21: "we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop."

Kotaku's case against Microsoft rests on its actions, not a statement about theft. It reports that Microsoft has issued multiple DMCA takedown notices in the past month against browser ports of Minecraft, Call of Duty and Halo, citing a tracker at portedgames.com, and that Sharma said at the October 13 launch of Xbox Labs that the company "remain[s] committed" to "being responsible stewards of IP." Kotaku sets that against Microsoft's AI products and against internal remarks from Brent Hecht, a Microsoft director of applied sciences, who, according to court records from the New York Times' lawsuit reported by Nieman Lab, called large models' use of creators' work "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions." Those records describe one employee's view, not Microsoft's position.

What did Epic Games say about AI?

Epic's position is in its own terms. Epic's Terms of Service, effective September 10, 2026, prohibit users from using "code or content extracted from the Licensed Products as training input for any Generative AI Program," or as prompt input where the program trains on what it receives. Tools that only upscale images, tag content or arrange existing content without creating new content are excluded from the definition.

Epic's chief executive, Tim Sweeney, has argued against AI labels. In posts on X reported by TechRadar on December 3, 2025, he wrote that "AI will be involved in nearly all future production" and that labeling AI use in game stores "makes no sense." Kotaku reports that Epic filed a DMCA notice against an AI-assisted browser port of Fortnite on October 10, 2026, and points to Epic's own use of AI, including a Bloomberg report that its upcoming Disney game is being built "AI first."

After Kotaku's piece, Sweeney responded on X on October 27, according to Kotaku's update: "This conflates a number of different things." He said Epic doesn't let people use Fortnite IP without permission. Asked whether Epic restricts AI training on outputs of Unreal Engine and MetaHuman, he wrote: "Yes currently but we are working to remove this restriction from EULA terms," as Game Developer reported on October 27. Game Developer gave no date for the change.

Is Kotaku right that "AI is theft" now?

The headline is Kotaku's argument, not either company's words. Neither Microsoft nor Epic has said AI is theft. What the record shows:

Last verified: October 29, 2026

Kotaku's own point is narrower than its headline: large publishers can take down ports with DMCA notices, while indie developers facing AI-made clones often can't afford to. It says it isn't defending the ports. The legal backdrop is unsettled, as our roundup of Anthropic's copyright cases shows. For a world model built to generate playable scenes, see our story on Google DeepMind's Genie 4.

What's confirmed, reported and uncertain

• Confirmed (primary documents): Steam's Pre-Generated and Live-Generated categories, the efficiency-tools wording, the adult-content rule, the January 9, 2024 announcement; Epic's generative AI training clause, effective September 10, 2026.
• Reported: Valve's October 27 remarks (Inven Global, in quotes as published); the January 2026 rewrite (VGC); Sharma's "AI slop" line (VGC); takedowns, the Xbox Labs quote, Hecht's remark and Sweeney's October 27 reply (Kotaku; Game Developer); Digital Sun's playtest change (PC Gamer); disclosure counts (GYLD via van Dreunen; Haro).
• Uncertain: how many Steam games use AI without disclosing it; whether Valve will change Next Fest or add anti-clone tools; whether Epic will drop its Unreal Engine training restriction.