Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has said it “makes no sense” that game stores are tagging their products for AI use, arguing that “AI will be involved in nearly all future production.”
“The AI tag is relevant to art exhibits for authorship disclosure, and to digital content licensing marketplaces where buyers need to understand the rights situation,” Sweeney added.
Generative AI is now endemic in the game industry, being used in everything from artwork to voice-overs and even writing dialogue. Online game stores like Steam, though they do allow AI content, have been requiring developers to clearly label whether any games listed on the platform have been made with AI since January 2024. Sweeney was responding to another user on X who called on Steam and all digital marketplaces to drop their “Made with AI” labels. Many users on social media took a markedly different view from Sweeney, with one saying they’d prefer to support a “real artist” and that they don’t support “AI slop.”
Companies like Nintendo and Obsidian Entertainment have said they don’t plan on using generative AI for their games in the near future; but AI-generated content is becoming a much more common sight on the game industry’s biggest platforms.
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In July 2025, research from Totally Human Media found that 7,818 titles on Steam now disclose generative AI usage—7% of Steam’s entire library of roughly 114,126 titles—up from just 1% the prior year.
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Sweeney is a big believer in the AI-led future of game design, and this isn’t the first time he’s made bold claims about the future. At a company event earlier this year, he told IGN that the technology for a ten-person development team to build a game on the scale of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is “totally going to be within reach over the next few years.”
The CEO claimed that generative AI will mean “entirely new genres of games invented that weren’t possible or practical before” without it.
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