On Steam, the Next Fest is currently taking place, where players can discover new titles, but this time it’s all about AI.
What is this action about? Every year, Steam wants to boost the smaller and upcoming titles on the platform with the Steam Next Fest. Players can try out countless demo versions and add the titles they like to their wish list.
But this year, the event is running differently than planned.
The fans are currently waiting for the Steam Machine:
AI, AI, AI!
What is different? Since the start of the event, many players have noticed one thing: more and more AI games. Games where developers have brought their own games to Steam with the help of AI chatbots, AI images, and AI videos.
While the titles usually fade into obscurity, such games are given a platform at the Next Fest. According to research by PCGuide.com, 20% of the games at the Next Fest contain AI content. In total, 1,715 of the approximately 8,700 games are affected.
These include games that use AI placeholders as well as titles that consist entirely of AI. The fans are annoyed because the focus should be on discovering the next hit or the gems of indie games.
What do the fans demand? The fans are demanding filters for Steam. They want to filter out all games that use AI in any way. User JAD2017 shares his frustration on Reddit:
Simple tag: “AI-generated content”. Bam, done – no more AI junk in your shop if you don’t want it. The current Steam Next Fest is filled with AI junk games that directly affect the discoverability of real games. Don’t make me email Gabe about this. Because I’ve heard he responds to everyone, and I will share the response if he actually does.
In the comments on Reddit, there is a lot of support:
- VelveteenDelta: “Filters, yes. People should be able to tag it – but probably not; the number of times people yell that something is AI when it was actually a real human error is increasing. Some people shouldn’t judge if they don’t know enough about the topic.”
- Darkon-Kriv: “I think we generally need more filters. For example, the ability to filter out Denuvo. If Steam can mark it, we should also be able to filter by it.”
- Kilohaili_Joshi: “That would destroy the system. If people could filter it out, developers would simply stop providing tags and only add them after being reported often enough. Valve has no real way to enforce this preventively, except through self-declaration.”
What do you think? Does Steam need better filters to filter out AI or certain third-party software? Or do you think indie developers would skip the necessary tagging then? Feel free to write it in the comments. An indie game had the potential to be a hit and failed despite mega funding: Indie game fails spectacularly on Steam despite raising 17 million dollars before release
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