The debate over artificial intelligence in game development continues to divide the industry, with Valve defending its hands-off approach to development tools while Epic Games increasingly embraces AI across its own production processes. Recent comments from both companies offer a clearer picture of where they stand, from Steam’s struggle with low-quality games and AI clones to Epic’s use of AI to develop Unreal Engine itself.

The discussion follows the backlash over Epic’s AI MegaJam announcement and the company’s wider push toward AI-assisted development. While Epic argues that the technology can help developers work faster and improve their tools, Valve says it doesn’t intend to police which tools developers use.

Valve’s Stance on AI Games Focuses on Access and Discovery

Speaking at the Steam Indie Connect event in South Korea on Oct. 27, Valve’s Tom Giardino and Marc Wilkinson addressed concerns from developers about AI-generated clones and the growing number of low-quality games appearing on Steam.

One developer described receiving an extortion threat from someone claiming, “If you don’t pay, we’ll clone your game with AI and release it first.” The threat reflects a growing concern among smaller studios that sharing demos and unfinished projects could make it easier for others to copy their ideas and beat them to market.

Giardino acknowledged the concern but reiterated Valve’s position on the use of AI. As reported by Inven Global, he said, “We don’t want to be gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn’t use.”

Valve’s advice to developers facing potential clones is to build a community around their games and keep improving them. The company argues that copying an individual mechanic is easier than replicating a game that has developed its own identity, features and relationship with its players.

That philosophy also informs Valve’s response to complaints about Steam Next Fest, where developers have reported poor visibility amid a flood of demos. Wilkinson explained that games are shown to users on a virtually random basis during the event’s first two days, before personalized recommendations begin directing players toward titles that better match their interests.

Wilkinson acknowledged the downside of that system: “We recognize that the trade-off is some low-quality games get exposed.” He also noted that Valve is actively considering ways to address the problem, although it hasn’t announced a specific new filter or policy designed to remove AI-generated games.

Its broader approach is to improve discovery rather than restrict access. Giardino explained: “Rather than limiting developer access, making Steam a smarter and more dynamic platform is the starting point of our philosophy.”

Their combined comments feed into how Valve’s revised rules clarify that AI-powered development tools, such as coding assistants, don’t require disclosure simply because they help produce software. The rules instead focus on AI-generated content included in a game, its store page or marketing materials, as well as content generated during gameplay.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney remains critical of the disclosure approach. In a post on X on Oct. 23 he wrote: “Forcing developers to write a political statement to be used against them by the hate mob they’re helping organize is abhorrent.”

Epic Confirms AI Is Helping Develop Unreal Engine

While Valve is concentrating on how AI affects Steam’s store and the developers using it, Epic has confirmed that the technology is already playing a substantial role in its own engineering work. In its June Road to Unreal Engine 6 announcement, Epic said, “We recently opened up pretty broad usage for code generation and AI analysis across our backend, engine, and game development engineering teams.”

The company has now provided further detail about how those tools are being used. In a statement to This Week in Videogames, Epic executive vice president of development Marcus Wassmer said, “We are more concerned about the risks of moving too slowly than we are about AI skepticism.”

Wassmer identified Claude Code and Codex as two of the tools being used across Epic’s development teams. He credited them with helping to nearly eliminate longstanding non-deterministic cooking bugs, accelerate shader compression work and expand automated testing.

One particularly notable example involved rewriting a significant portion of Unreal Engine’s DirectX 12 rendering layer. Wassmer said he had estimated the work would take a single engineer between three and six weeks, but the team completed it in about a week, with improvements to CPU performance and fewer bugs.

Epic is also using automated monitoring and root-cause analysis to identify PC stability problems in Fortnite and Unreal Engine. According to Wassmer, these tools can detect driver and hardware combinations behind issues that might previously have taken months to investigate.

Asked whether the company was using AI to produce code with limited direct human involvement, Wassmer explained that engineers still guide the tools and determine the desired architecture. “We’re not ‘one-shotting’ the engine; we’re iterating with AI to ship features developers want and keep the engine within the memory, performance, and scalability envelopes.”

Epic believes the results will ultimately matter more than the controversy surrounding the technology. “The best way to counter any skepticism is through the quality of the games and tools we’re able to deliver,” Wassmer added.

The company’s upcoming AI MegaJam is another part of that push. The event runs from Nov. 12–15 and encourages developers to use AI tools for coding, asset creation and other parts of production. Following criticism of the original announcement, Epic clarified that AI use is optional: “That’s our mistake. You can use as little or as much AI as you want.”

The Last Word

Valve isn’t promising to keep AI out of Steam, just as Epic isn’t hiding its intention to make AI a central part of its development process. Their disagreement is partly about disclosure, but it also reflects different priorities: Valve is trying to preserve an open storefront while improving discovery, whereas Epic sees AI as a way to speed up engineering and expand what developers can achieve.

That difference is important. Using AI to help maintain an engine isn’t the same as generating a game’s dialogue, artwork or other content for players. The debate over AI’s wider implications remains unresolved, as explored in our coverage of Epic’s broader AI pivot and the questions raised by an AI-built Terraria recreation.

Ultimately, Epic will need to demonstrate that its bold claims translate into more stable tools and better games. Valve, meanwhile, will need to show that improving discovery can keep original work visible without restricting access.

Featured Image Credit

Image via Steam Deck press kit