Over 500 Steam Next Fest demos used generative AI, and I've never felt more disappointed

You've heard me talk about Steam Next Fest before, right? You read my mini-preview of Legend of Khiimori, the game that basically turned me into a Horse Guy. You understand how I always try to champion independent creativity and give a pedestal to developers who might not otherwise get the mainstream coverage. I'm always looking for the next title to add to our list of the best indie games, and Next Fest is usually the place to spot them. Unfortunately, the October 2025 edition was plagued by games that utilized AI generation, with over 500 demos disclosing the use of generative AI in their development.

Even as I browsed the demos on offer, I noticed some telltale signs of generative AI. Images that looked a little off, Steam page descriptions using phrases that no human would utter; that sort of thing. No games that were entirely AI-generated, like that crap Elon Musk is trying to push over on the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

Thankfully, any demo that uses AI - as with any game on Valve's storefront - must disclose that it is doing so. That's how Techraptor found that 504 demos featured in Steam Next Fest, totalling 17% of the games available, utilized generative AI in some form.

The report notes that developers disclosed AI usage mostly for marketing and Steam store page assets; art assets in-game (from concept art, to placeholders, to all of the art in a game); audio assets (music, sound effects, voice over); translation; coding; writing; ideation; and in-game live calls.

The most popular demo that used generative AI was Cloudheim, which made it into the top 50 most-played games of the week. While its disclosure states that it primarily uses generative AI for "internal communication," it also allows developers to use the controversial technology as they wished, seemingly without oversight.

It seems that developer Noodle Cat Games is aware of the issues surrounding the subject, as it caveats its disclosure by saying, "No people have been replaced by AI. This includes artists and engineers on our team, voice actors, localization, or other roles."

While developers in many disciplines, including those mentioned above, fear that their jobs are at risk due to companies embracing generative AI, more games are using it to cut costs. Seemingly unaware or uncaring of the human and environmental impact of this technology, more games are launching after being assisted by generative AI.

Arc Raiders is the most prominent recent example. Embark Studios embraced the fact that it replaced voice actors with AI in its last game, The Finals. A vague disclosure that it's used AI "to assist with content creation" on the Arc Raiders Steam page suggests it may have done the same again. Players have already noticed awkwardly voiced dialogue in the extraction shooter, so it seems that Embark has potentially chosen to go down the same path as before.

PCGamesN has reached out to Embark to ask about the specific uses of generative AI in Arc Raiders' voiceovers. 

Technology that can only amalgamate the past cannot create something meaningfully, intentionally new. What would Halo multiplayer be without Jeff Steitzer shouting "Slayer!"? Replacing him with a generic AI voice is enough to remove any excitement from your killing spree, but what if he had never voiced those lines at all? A machine that functions as a fancy autocomplete simply cannot harness the same human creativity as an actor in a recording booth, a dev working on code, or an artist creating concept art from their real, lived experiences on this planet.

However, plenty of games don't disclose their AI generated assets until players notice something awry. It happened to The Alters earlier this year, and more recently Hotel Barcelona. If over 500 games at Steam Next Fest disclosed their use of generative AI, how many more used it but aren't planning on telling us until they get called out?

The fact that 504 Steam Next Fest games confirmed they used generative AI is quite frankly disappointing. That yet more may have used it but not disclosed it is worrying. When the industry is already leaking talent through layoff after layoff, we need to protect our workers and create games with human vision and ingenuity at their heart. I thought Steam Next Fest would be a place to foster this. Clearly, I thought wrong.

If you want to play some great games that are human to their core, check out our list of the best old games. And if you need further warning about the future dangers of AI, the best space games have you covered multiple times over.

What do you make of the proliferation of AI in gaming? Where would you draw the line? Let us know in our community Discord server, where staff and readers discuss all the latest gaming news.