Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has criticised rival Valve for forcing studios to disclose when they use AI in game development.
Since 2024, Valve has required developers to disclose on Steam whether generative AI was used in the creation of their games. This then appears on the game’s store page in a section called ‘AI Generated Content Disclosure’.
This was reportedly tweaked in January 2026 to make it clearer to developers that the two main types of AI that needed a disclosure are the use of AI to generate content for the game, or AI content generated during gameplay, while “AI-powered tools” such as code helpers don’t have to be disclosed.
In a new interview with PC Gamer, Sweeney has criticised Steam’s requirements, claiming that any developer who declares that it uses AI to generate content for its game risks being vilified by players.
“It’s unfortunate we’re in this situation,” Sweeney said. “It’s unfortunate that so many developers now are put into this position.
“If you want to launch a game, and get it as widely publicized as possible, you’ve got to put it on Steam so people can wish list it, and if you want to play it on Steam, then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product, and now there is a hater community trying to kill the game.
“I think it’s really irresponsible of Valve. They shouldn’t do it, because it makes it much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success. You have to choose from either not using tools that can make you way more productive, and probably failing due to competition that does.”
Sweeney’s comments should come as no surprise given that Epic Games has started talking more this month about its upcoming Unreal Engine 6 and its heavy focus on integration with AI models like Claude and Gemini.
Earlier this month at a State of Unreal event in Chicago, Epic showed how AI large language models (LLMs) can be used directly with Unreal Engine 6 to generate content. During a demonstration, it used a Claude prompt window to furnish a virtual apartment by asking for items, which were then pulled from the assets library.
It later showed how it could change the lighting in a city scene by asking Claude to alter the time of day, or even use a static photo as a reference. Epic stressed that developers will have final control over their creations and can manually change their results.
Last year Sweeney said on X that he didn’t see the point in digital game stores flagging when a game has used AI during development, claiming it “makes no sense for game stores, where AI will be involved in nearly all future production”.
