The ever-reliable Dark Horizons is reporting something interesting from the world of gaming this morning, something many gamers had been starting to complain loudly about – Shovelware and A.I. Slop.
This is where games are created and released on various marketplace platforms, either as poor-quality knock-offs of better-known titles or as games that bear little resemblance to the advertised game. These often use A.I. generated advertisements to fool prospective downloaders. They also can engage in blatant trophy farming, or excessive in-app purchases to maintain levels.
Recently, Sony’s PlayStation Store has gone into bat against these developers, removing whole catalogues and banning them from the whole platform. Nintendo introduced a ranking based on sales which drove the slop-makers off the listings as they sell at too low a price to climb.
Now, while out in Korea, Steam Business Team members Tom Giardino and Marc Wilkinson were holding a Q&A session with developers when questions were asked about the approach Valve is taking.
They require games to be tagged when they use A.I., but otherwise they have not taken drastic action like other platforms. Over half (50.6%) of the games released in October so far have an A.I. warning attached.
Giardino said the use of AI in game development was a decision to be made by each developer:
“We don’t want to be gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn’t use.”
They were told that some developers are threatened with AI-generated, low-quality clones of their games unless they pay a ransom.
Developers have previously requesting the ability to filter out Steam Greenlight and Steam Direct titles, as this would allow users to filter out these games. Giardino said:
“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.
We don’t think we’re perfect and there’s plenty of room for improvement. Rather than limiting developer access, making Steam a smarter and more dynamic platform is the starting point of our philosophy.”
The report was carried by Inven and VGC, mentioning that Steam now risks falling behind as it becomes increasingly difficult for users to avoid these types of title.
