How Steam's AI Disclosure Policy Works
Browse Steam these days and you'll notice some games carry an AI usage notice. The page for the newly released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, for example, says the dev team used generative AI tools to help make some in-game assets.
It doesn't say whether the AI made art, music or something else. That's probably why a lot of gamers don't pay the notice much mind.
✦ How Steam's AI Rules Grew
From a survey question to reporting live-generated content
Steam added an AI disclosure item to its developer survey in January 2024, and in January 2026 it made the scope clearer. It also built a way for players to report illegal content through the Steam Overlay in games that generate AI content live.
There's a practical reason for a policy like this.
If AI-made images or music infringe someone else's copyright, putting them in a game doesn't make the problem go away. And in a game where the AI creates lines and pictures on the fly during play, it's even harder to predict what will come out.
So Steam's position is that writing down AI use doesn't excuse anyone. Content with the label still gets checked against Steam's operating policies, thoroughly. Well, that's only natural.
Say a game has a feature where an AI makes up songs and sings them on the spot. What if that AI keeps infringing copyright? A simple 'AI used' label won't get it waved through.
✦ What Counts as Disclosable
The test is what players actually run into
Using AI at some point while making a game doesn't automatically mean you have to disclose it on Steam. What decides it is whether the content gamers actually run into was made by AI.
In other words, if AI-made images, music, story or translations end up in the game, they have to be disclosed. The same goes when AI generates new images or text while the game is running.
On the other hand, using something like a coding tool that just makes development more efficient generally isn't something you have to disclose.
Epic Games Pushes Back on Steam
Now the AI label policy has ended up at the center of an argument. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, criticized Steam's policy. If you don't know Epic Games, have you heard of Unreal Engine? A huge number of games coming out these days are built on it.
Epic made it. It's also the company behind standout titles like Fortnite, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War.
✦ Sweeney's Argument, Step by Step
His claim, as he laid it out
On October 24 and 25, Sweeney said this disclosure requirement is no different from making developers write a political statement.
By his argument, a developer who discloses AI use can be exposed to attacks or boycotts from users who see the label. That could threaten the game's success and even the developer's livelihood.
His point, roughly, was that it's unfair for Steam to force developers to attach a label that makes them a target.
✦ What Sweeney Said, and What He Didn't Show
The claim and the evidence behind it
Sweeney didn't offer any data this time showing how much a particular game's sales dropped because of an AI label, or whether developers were actually attacked. So there's no way to verify whether what he said is true.
Still, a prominent game company criticizing Steam's policy is exactly why it drew so much attention.
I can see where he's coming from, though. Some gamers will certainly dislike a game just because it carries an 'AI used' label.
If you found out the game you'd been absorbed in was a system where an AI casually generates results in real time, the immersion could shatter too.
These days even solo developers make decent games with AI. But when a big studio discloses AI use, it feels a little 'beneath them,' doesn't it?
But gamers want to know whether a developer made a game half-heartedly with AI or crafted it by hand with care. Maybe that's how developers who sweat over their games without AI get the recognition they deserve.
Think of the pixel artists who used to place every dot by hand to make assets. What would they think looking at the digital assets AI turns out in a flash these days?
Doesn't Epic Require AI Labels Elsewhere?
✦ Steam vs. Fab
Similar labels, different things being sold
Here's the interesting part: Epic also asks for AI labels in a marketplace it runs. Fab, Epic's asset marketplace, requires a 'Created with AI' label on products generated with AI.
In 2025, one creator uploaded more than 41,000 AI-generated assets to Fab and overloaded the system.
Epic Games said failing to properly label AI-made products violates its terms, and announced it would tighten the upload process so sellers have to choose whether an item was AI-generated.
So Epic seems to demand AI labels in its own marketplace while criticizing Steam's labeling policy. But Sweeney has drawn a line between a 'game store' and a 'digital asset marketplace.'
The logic goes like this: when a developer buys 3D models or images on Fab, it matters who made them and what rights they're buying. But slapping an AI label on a store that sells finished games is an unnecessary stigma.
✦ What Critics Say Steam's Label Misses
Why some want the policy tightened
On the other side, those who back Steam's position actually argue the policy is too weak. Just labeling 'AI used' tells you nothing about which parts of the game were made by AI.
They want it spelled out where AI output went in: images, voices, characters, dialogue, translation and so on.
That way, games made entirely by AI and games that used it for only some parts can be told apart, and developers can clear up the misunderstanding that 'this is an all-AI game!'
Going forward, AI-generated content in games will keep growing, maybe to the point where you can't properly tell what the studio built from what the AI generated. I wonder whether tightening the disclosure requirement would be worth it by then.
That's all for this post. See you next time.
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