Steam Next Fest Draws Player Complaints Over Number of AI-Generated Games in Demos

Some players are pushing back against developers who use modern AI technology to make games. A user who goes by Shogo-MAD says Steam Next Fest 2026 has been “completely ruined by AI.”

Valve recently launched another Steam Next Fest, where developers presented thousands of demos for a wide range of games. Not everyone is celebrating, since some creators now actively use modern AI tools to develop their projects.

Shogo-MAD said Steam Next Fest is “completely ruined by AI.” The player pointed out that finding a decent game means digging through “thousands of AI slop projects”:

A couple of years ago, Steam Next Fest events were a great way to find a new game. You probably added more than one or two games to your wishlist. You could discover projects you would never have heard of otherwise. And now? You probably have better odds of winning the lottery than of finding a good demo. You literally have to dig through THOUSANDS of AI slop projects passing themselves off as “games” to find anything worthwhile. In that situation, what point is there to Next Fest at all?

Image source: Valve

Many participants in the discussion backed Shogo-MAD. They said the festival really does have a lot of “AI junk” instead of actual games, which makes them less willing to browse the Steam Next Fest list.

MadeByTango thinks Valve should add more tags, such as “game made with AI,” “Denuvo/DRM,” “Requires accepting a license agreement [for the game],” and “Kernel access required.”

In MadeByTango’s view, “this will be better for everyone.” The tags would let players filter out content they dislike from the store feed. According to MadeByTango, “Gabe can sell the junk, the junk makers can sell it to people who don’t care, and everyone else will never see it and can find what they need.”

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