Valve Responds to Developers Fearing AI Slop and Clones

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At Steam Indie Connect, Valve told indie developers that community and steady updates, not gatekeeping, are their defense against AI clones. Inven Global reports that Steam Business Team members Tom Giardino and Marc Wilkinson fielded questions about extortion emails threatening AI copies, low-quality games flooding Next Fest, and wishlists. The article notes Valve offered no definitive fix for AI slop or cloning; the Next Fest quality problem is acknowledged and under consideration.

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• Clones predate AI. Giardino said copying hit concepts always happened and AI only sped it up; Valve won't police tools, and treats clones as it treated piracy, by making the real version the best one.
• Extortion is a police matter, but report it. Asked about emails threatening to clone an unpaid developer's game with AI and release it first, Giardino said it was the first he had heard of it and offered to look into reported cases.
• Next Fest's first two days are deliberately random. Wilkinson said random exposure stops gaming the system and gives every game a fair shot before personalized recommendations take over, at the cost of showing some low-quality games.
• Open doors over filters. Giardino said Next Fest grew from 50–100 games three years ago to thousands, and that Valve answered calls to filter Greenlight and Steam Direct games by improving the store instead.
• Wishlists don't drive visibility. Wilkinson said sales and play do; Giardino called wishlists a marketing gauge, and the article says new-release exposure on the now-official Personal Calendar lasts only 1–2 weeks.

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