Steam Next Fest is back at the PC gaming scene’s top marketplace, bringing a large selection of playable demos for upcoming games. A number of these tryouts also come with notes about generative AI.
SteamDB, which functions as a statistics-tracking database, lets people filter the full roster of Steam Next Fest titles using different tags. From it, we can see that 8700 games are taking part in the Steam Next Fest event, and 1704 of those are marked with the generative AI tag as of this writing. In other words, that’s roughly one-fifth—about 20 percent—of all participating entries.
As a platform, Steam has been firm about requiring studios to state whether they used generative AI in the development process. The rule has been adjusted just enough to allow “efficiency gains” driven by AI to remain unreported. Even so, Steam made it clear that when this technology is used, players still need to be informed.
That mandatory AI notice has left some creators dealing with tricky decisions. For example, Sega recently stepped in to clarify how generative AI will be used in the upcoming Crazy Taxi title. At first, the company said generative AI was used to create background assets. Later, during Summer Game Fest, the explanation was updated to clarify that it served only as a reference.
The subject keeps fueling discussion within the gaming community. It also connects to the ongoing increase in computer hardware prices, since key parts required for consoles and gaming PCs are currently in tight supply. Even with that backdrop, major releases still continue to incorporate it—for instance, Crimson Desert—and studios such as Embark, the developer behind Arc Raiders, are openly supporting its adoption.