The current Steam Next Fest isn’t going over well with many players. The culprit is AI-generated content, which many feel has become too dominant on the platform.
On Reddit, many players are currently venting their frustration about the current Steam Next Fest, which runs from June 15 to 22.The culprit is a large amount of AI-generated content used in numerous demos and games.
While some games, such as this one with the telling nameFarm
, at least officially only use AI to generate their key art, others, like the Boxing Life Simulator, rely on more extensive AI support for visual or gameplay elements.
AI junk everywhere
This is drawing plenty of criticism on Reddit and other platforms.— as user Miamithrice69 says it’s the worst Steam Next Fest he or she has ever seen. Everything is full ofAI junk
:
Link toReddit content
So much AI crap. Even the names sound like they were generated by AI. This is the most soulless and boring Next Fest ever. I mean, seriously, a game called “Farm”? So many games look like they just did the bare minimum to qualify as “games” and then just threw them on Steam.
It seems like there’s more to it than just a vague feeling. Another post with over 1,400 upvotes quotes our colleagues at Eurogamer atReddit.According to this, over 1,000 games and demos that are part of Steam Next Fest are said to include some form of AI disclaimer. This could include additional marketing content such as the key art mentioned above, but also (visual) in-game elements or even entirely generated games.
Big help or big danger? A hotly debated topic
Usersbadassbolsac agrees with the scathing verdict from the first post:
That’s right, 90 percent of the games are crappy asset flips, if they aren’t obviously using AI-generated images.
AlsoRemarkablePassage468takes a rather negative view of it:
5,000 games. I can imagine that there are at least 10 good games in this haystack. The hard part is finding them!
UserNickulator95also notes that the references often pertain only to generative AI. Whether and how AI was actually used as a tool in the development process itself is an entirely different matter. For him, it’s clear,that most developers are already using some form of AI tools to assist them in their work.
It’s much rarer for a game to be generated entirely by AI, but it’s not impossible
Not everyone sees the situation as so bleak, however.Phailyurpoints out in his or her comment that it simply takes time to filter out such games:
I’m sure that the games real people are actually interested in will be in the spotlight starting tomorrow.
Noah_BKagrees that the current Steam Next Fest isn’t entirely convincing, but also highlights a few personal favorites that he or she thinks are still worth checking out—such as the game that was revealed completely out of the blue at Summer Game Fest 1666: AmsterdamorValor Mortis, a first-person Souls-like from the creators of Ghostrunner.Those searching for gold would still find it, despite everything—even if you have to search a little more thoroughly these days.
The topic of AI and games remains a hotly debated issue—whether it’s about generated assets and artwork or its use as a tool, such as in programming. While some take a relaxed view and hope that programmers, artists, and other key development roles will be relieved of some of their workload, others fear that creative work will lose much of its value and quality as a result.
That’s why discussions flare up time and again, as was recently the case with the Soulslike game Lies of P 2 and the remake Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis. The topic of AI and AI-powered games was also hotly debated at the last Steam Next Fest. We’ve linked the relevant articles for you a bit further up.
