From 1.7 per cent to nearly half in under three years: that's how fast generative AI has taken over Steam, where almost every other new game now discloses using it. But as studios lean on AI for art, music and more, indie developers are asking a darker question: what if someone clones my game before I can finish it?
One indie developer reportedly told Valve that creators were receiving threatening emails from people claiming they could use AI to copy their games and release the replicas first.
The alarming issue was raised at Steam Indie Connect in Seoul on 27 October, where Valve representative Tom Giardino was asked whether the platform could do more to protect developers worried about showing their games before launch.
'We don't want to be gatekeepers,' Giardino said, according to Inven Global.
The comments highlight an uncomfortable contradiction in gaming's AI revolution: while the technology is helping studios produce content more efficiently, smaller developers are increasingly worried about how easily their creative work could be imitated.
Indie Developers Fear AI-Powered Copycats Could Steal Their Games
One attendee told they had received emails threatening to 'copy your game with AI and release it first.' The outlet stressed that this was a single account. It could not say how widespread the messages were, or whether the senders had built anything at all.
Giardino said this was the first he had heard of the alleged extortion. He urged developers to report threats to Valve so it can investigate, though he added that extortion is really a job for law enforcement.
He also argued that copying game concepts existed long before generative AI, although newer tools could accelerate how quickly similar games appeared.
His advice was for developers to build communities around their games and continue improving them with distinctive features and personality, making the complete experience harder to replicate than a single gameplay mechanic.
But that does little to eliminate the immediate concerns facing small studios preparing to launch their first games.
Indie Studio Pulls Its Game Demo Amid AI Cloning Fears
The concerns are not limited to hypothetical threats.
South Korean indie studio YNOT reportedly temporarily closed its public demo for Spookitchen after saying it had been told someone was copying the cooking game using AI.
It was reported that the demo was withdrawn on 20 October, with the developer describing the decision as temporary.
The game's Steam page continues to list it as coming soon. However, neither the developer's statement nor the report establishes that a functioning clone actually exists.
For independent studios, publicly available demos and early store pages are important ways to attract players, build anticipation and gather feedback before launch.
But showing off an unfinished game can also expose its mechanics, artwork and overall design to potential imitators.
Closing a demo may offer developers greater control over who can access their work, but it also means fewer opportunities to reach new audiences.
Almost Half of New Steam Games Now Disclose AI Use
The worries are growing as generative AI becomes increasingly common across Steam's growing catalogue.
An independent analysis of roughly 63,600 Steam releases by Reddit user u/ploz found that 49.9 per cent of new games released in October 2026 included a generative-AI disclosure.
That compares with just 1.7 per cent in January 2024, when Valve introduced its disclosure framework.
The climb has been steady. Just 13.2 per cent of releases disclosed AI use across 2024, but the share nearly doubled to 24 per cent in 2025 and reached 40.1 per cent between January and October 2026.
Artwork was by far the most commonly disclosed use, accounting for 63 per cent of AI disclosures.
Text and translations represented 30 per cent, followed by store-page and marketing materials at 26 per cent, music at 21 per cent and coding at 16 per cent.
Voices accounted for seven per cent, while live, in-game AI generation represented just three per cent.
These categories overlap because individual games can disclose multiple uses of the technology.
Those figures don't mean half of Steam's new games were built entirely by AI. A disclosure can cover something as small as one image, a translated sentence or a promotional asset.
Valve Already Requires AI Disclosures but Has No New Anti-Cloning System
Valve introduced its AI disclosure framework in January 2024, requiring developers to identify AI-generated content that players experience, including artwork, audio, writing and localisation.
Valve's rules treat two kinds of AI use differently: content created during development, and content generated while the game is running. Developers who use live AI generation must also explain how they prevent illegal output. AI tools used purely behind the scenes generally don't need to be disclosed.
The independent analysis also found that smaller releases were more likely to disclose AI use. Games with fewer than 10 reviews reported AI use in 47 per cent of cases, compared with 14 per cent among titles with at least 1,000 reviews.
The gap is wide. Developers putting out 10 or more games a year disclosed AI use in 68 per cent of their releases, while one-game-a-year developers did so in 37 per cent. It hints that AI helps most when output is high.
Valve has also directed copyright owners to its existing process for reporting infringement. Giardino did not announce a new system to stop cloning, nor did he promise automatic action against accounts that threaten developers.
For now, the technology presents an increasingly complicated future for independent creators: AI can make producing a game faster and more accessible, but protecting what makes that game original remains a challenge.
