Steam Subsequent Fest ought to be a celebration of upcoming indie video games; a competition of free demos and gaming alternative. It ought to be a time to furnish your wishlist and take a look at new genres. A bizarre match-three sport with an indecipherable narrative? That is Titanium Court docket alright. A raccoon taking part in a coin pusher roguelike? Raccoin is for you. Whether or not you are after a worthy Disco Elysium successor or one thing else fully, Steam Subsequent Fest ought to be there for you. Sadly, 2026’s first version of the competition is stuffed with generative AI.
“I want there was a technique to filter out video games that use generative AI and flip property,” writes Reddit person u/SomeRandomArtist31, “As a result of I do not need to play them.” Many others replied in settlement. However simply what number of of Subsequent Fest’s video games use the controversial expertise? It is greater than you want.
PCGamesN manually trawled by means of one of the best video games of Steam Subsequent Fest, as tracked by Valve’s personal ‘High Demos’ web page. We discovered that ten of the highest 100 video games admitted to utilizing generative AI in growth through Steam’s disclosure. Whereas that is only a fraction of the three,456 sport demos on provide through the weeklong festivities, you possibly can solely think about that the amount of so-called ‘slop’ solely will increase as you close to the least standard finish of the record.
Of the video games within the prime 100 demos of Steam Subsequent Fest, the ten that disclose utilizing generative AI are: Warhounds, Fearwoods*, The Stupendous World, Esports Supervisor 2026, Wild West Pioneers, FRUKT, Guardians of the Wild Sky, Trip Cafe Simulator, Knowledge Heart, and Copa Metropolis. This comes after in-depth analysis confirmed that over 500 video games admitted to utilizing generative AI within the October 2025 version of the competition.
Regardless of the small pattern measurement, there are some learnings we are able to take from this knowledge. 4 of the ten video games say that they used generative AI to create “placeholder” pictures or music, which both has already been changed or can be changed within the full sport. That does not reduce the environmental affect of this workflow, nor the affect on the well being for these residing close to knowledge facilities. However does make for an fascinating perception into how builders anticipate the AI disclosure to be acquired by gamers.
One sport, Fearwoods, discloses that its 2D artist used AI instruments in Photoshop to hurry up the workflow, which does not ring any alarm bells to me – therefore the asterisk within the aforementioned record. I would have thought most individuals have used some sort of AI upscale or generative fill of their picture software program of alternative, and it would not go away the identical bitter style in my mouth as fully designing property utilizing ChatGPT or Midjourney does.
The commonest ingredient to be generated by AI among the many prime 100 video games of Steam Subsequent Fest is portraits and logos, adopted by music and voice-over. These are all issues which can be simply made by hand, and have been executed so for years. There could also be a rush to get a demo out in time for Subsequent Fest, however that does not excuse using this damaging expertise for a lot of gamers.
It is price allowing for that these are simply the video games that disclose using generative AI. There are numerous others that most likely use the software program however don’t have any intention of explaining themselves, as Valve hasn’t discovered an applicable punishment for builders misrepresenting their property on this method as of but. There is no draw back to not disclosing any use of generative AI, so why would builders be sincere about it when gamers are broadly in opposition to the expertise?
It is clear that Valve wants, on the very least, filters on its storefront so we are able to remove AI-created video games from our searches and Subsequent Fests. It additionally must do higher at imposing its AI disclosure, which at present solely punishes sincere builders and permits unhealthy actors to slide by means of the cracks. As for Steam Subsequent Fest, I’ve seen much less slop in a pig’s trough, and I dread to think about the outcomes if I had time to test for disclosures on all 3,500 video games collaborating. Whereas 10% is excessive for video games within the prime 100, I worry the precise share can be far larger if all video games had been tallied and checked.
