The dispute surrounding Valve's AI disclosure on Steam enters its next round, with Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney once again leading the charge. He has been lashing out against Valve on X for days.
What Are Tim Sweeney's Accusations Against Steam?
On October 24, Sweeney wrote that forcing developers to make a political statement that would then be used against them was abhorrent. He later followed up, stating: The AI disclosures were "just as partisan as mandatory political essays." He also claimed Valve was costing developers financially because anti-AI hate campaigns undermined businesses. On October 25, he asserted that everyone would be using AI in a year anyway. When prompted that this was an opportunity for Epic, he replied with "Yep!".
Why Does Steam Have AI Disclosures At All?
Valve introduced the disclosures because the legal situation surrounding AI is unclear. The company later relaxed the rules to allow more AI-powered games and announced it would review the decision as new insights emerged. The Epic Games Store does not have this requirement but is much smaller: roughly 1,100 games were released there in 2024, compared to 18,433 on Steam.
How Do We Evaluate The Dispute?
From our perspective, Sweeney has a point when it comes to hostilities against developers – threats are never acceptable. However, the claim that Valve is pursuing an anti-AI stance is incorrect: Gabe Newell supported OpenAI early on with $20 million. The timing is noteworthy: Epic had announced an "AI-first" approach for an upcoming Star Wars and Marvel crossover in the same month, then an AI game jam, and subsequently withdrew the requirement for mandatory AI usage during that jam. For players, this means: The debate over whether games must disclose AI usage remains open for now.
Source: PC Gamer
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