Valve weighs in on Next Fest AI cloning phenomenon

Valve, the owner of Steam, has publicly addressed the growing issue of AI-driven game clones on its platform, acknowledging the trend but shifting responsibility to developers. Speaking at the Busan Indie Connect Festival Organizing Committee developer conference in South Korea, Valve representatives Tom Giardino and Marc Wilkinson stated that the company does not plan to implement measures to prevent cloning. Instead, they emphasized that developers should focus on creating games that are harder to replicate and fostering communities that prioritize original content.

Giardino reportedly argued that Valve’s role is not to act as a gatekeeper, stating that the company does not want to dictate which tools developers use. He suggested that developers should build active communities and establish trust so that players prefer original games over clones. Complex games, he noted, are inherently more difficult to copy, making them a natural deterrent to cloning. The discussion followed a developer’s report of receiving a threat to clone their game using AI and release it first.

The fear of AI cloning is not isolated to a single region or game type. Digital Sun Games, the developer behind the Moonlighter series, has delayed a public playtest of its next game, ReVamp, due to concerns that AI clones could beat the studio to launch. This highlights the broader industry anxiety surrounding the rapid replication of games using AI tools.

Valve’s hands-off approach to Steam curation dates back to 2018, when the company adopted a policy allowing nearly all games on the platform, with exceptions only for illegal or trolling content. Erik Johnson, a Valve representative, stated at the time that the company believed this approach was the right one. Valve has not indicated plans to change this policy despite the rising concerns about AI cloning.