Valve says it is aware of the Steam AI slop problem and has a “significant number of people” working on it. The comments came at Steam Indie Connect, an event for independent developers held in Korea on October 27. There, Valve staff faced questions about AI-generated clones and a wave of extortion attempts aimed at indie studios.
Valve’s Tom Giardino and Marc Wilkinson spoke at the event, according to a report from Inven Global. Their main advice was that developers should keep working on their games after release. As the pair put it: “Launch feels like the finish line, but it’s actually the starting line.”
Giardino on clones and extortion
Some indie developers have recently received threatening messages demanding payment. The senders claim that unless the studio pays, AI clones of its game will launch on Steam alongside the original. Giardino said he had not heard of these cases. He added that extortion is a matter for law enforcement rather than a storefront.
He also argued that AI is not the root of the Steam AI slop issue, pointing out that clone games existed long before generative AI tools. “We don’t want to be gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn’t use,” he said.
Instead, Giardino recommended two approaches: building a community around a game and pursuing “continuous improvement.” “Rather than relying on a single mechanic that someone can easily copy, you need to keep growing your game by adding features, personality and creativity that stem from your own perspective,” he said.
Next Fest demos and the Steam AI slop complaints
The most recent Steam Next Fest, which ran last week, had twice as many demos as the previous edition. During the event, media coverage described the demo lineup as flooded with low-quality, AI-generated games.
Wilkinson explained how Next Fest surfaces demos. For the first two days of the week-long event, Steam shows demos to users at random. From the third day, it starts curating recommendations based on each player’s preferences.
According to Inven Global, Wilkinson said “many articles complaining about a flood of low-quality games were written based solely on those first two days.” Still, he said Valve takes the issue seriously. “We are fully aware of the situation, and a significant number of people are thinking about how to solve this problem,” Wilkinson said. The report does not describe any specific measures or a timeline.
Criticism of Valve’s advice
Kotaku writer John Walker criticized the guidance, arguing that continuous updates are a luxury for studios that already have funding. Many indie teams work for little or no pay before launch and rely on sales to recoup their costs. AI clones can cut into exactly those sales.
Walker also wrote that the advice overlooks indie games deliberately built around a single, unique mechanic. He noted that some AI knock-offs now launch before the games they copy are even out. In his view, Valve places the burden of fixing Steam AI slop on developers rather than on itself.