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Epic's Sweeney Says Platforms Should Stop Tagging Games Made With AI (gamesindustry.biz)

(Thursday November 27, 2025 @09:30PM (msmash) from the how-about-that dept.)


The CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, has argued that platforms like Steam [1]should not label games that are made using AI . From a report:

> Responding to a post on Twitter from a user who suggested that storefronts drop this tag, the industry exec said that it "makes no sense" to flag such content. Sweeney added that soon AI will be a part of the way all games are made. "The AI tag is relevant to art exhibits for authorship disclosure, and to digital content licensing marketplaces where buyers need to understand the rights situation," Sweeney said. "It makes no sense for game stores, where AI will be involved in nearly all future production."



[1] https://www.gamesindustry.biz/epics-sweeney-says-platforms-should-stop-tagging-games-made-with-ai



Tag! (Score:1)

by Anonymous Coward

You're AI!

CEO sees roadblock to more profit and says let's n (Score:5, Insightful)

by cowbud ( 200323 )

How about the market decides. If people don't care the label won't matter.

Re: (Score:2)

by Kisai ( 213879 )

Bingo.

I do not want to buy a game that is "AI" generated. That is slop and garbage not deserving of being paid for.

If you want to make a "free" game with AI shit. Be my guest. You throw microtransactions of more AI slop, I hope nobody is that dumb to pay for it.

If a development house uses AI to generate place holder assets, those assets must never make their way into the final product.

Any AI generated material is public domain.

\o/ (Score:3, Insightful)

by easyTree ( 1042254 )

You're free to make games with AI - others are free to tag them - yet others are free to use the tags to inform their buying choices.

Presumably you believe in these freedoms?

What 'makes no sense' is trying to cast a 'good for you' into a 'good for everyone - for all time' or trying to go against customer desires.

Re: (Score:1)

by XaXXon ( 202882 )

There's no actual way to know if a game was made with AI or not.

Re: \o/ (Score:2)

by easyTree ( 1042254 )

The developers know. I'd be surprised if they didn't talk.

Tim Sweeny wants (Score:2)

by beelsebob ( 529313 )

Tim Sweeny wants to be able to push out AI generated swill without you being able to tell until itâ(TM)s too late. News at 11.

Re: (Score:2)

by TheMiddleRoad ( 1153113 )

As long as they're free...

Re: (Score:2)

by znrt ( 2424692 )

sounds about right. then again, fundamentally i would agree with him. we don't tag games for being copycats or reskins, musical content for using autotune, media for being fx filtered, etc ... and the offer is literally flooded with those and everyone finds that's normal. we correctly assume that those are just tools of this age, even if they were unimaginable just a few years ago, now they are bread&butter. well, ai is the new kid in the toolbox, that's just how it is and that cat isn't going back into

Re: (Score:3)

by Morromist ( 1207276 )

They are accepting the games - the issue is whether it should be disclosed to potential buyers that the developers used AI.

If superior games can be made with AI that's fine, let the buyer decide.

Some people would also say there are ethical reasons not to buy certain games, even if they are better games. You could probably make better games if you used slave labor too, but, I suspect, many people would prefer not to buy those games even if they were more fun than non-slave labor games.

Rich a$$holes (Score:1)

by algaeman ( 600564 )

Rich a$$hole explains why it would be a mistake to inconvenience rich a$$holes.

Re: (Score:2)

by CommunityMember ( 6662188 )

> Rich a$$hole explains why it would be a mistake to inconvenience rich a$$holes.

Follow the money

A CEO's job is to promote their company (marketing) so that their owners (which includes Tim, personally, in this case) make more money.

There was the old joke, which was Q: "how can you tell when a marketing individual was lying to you". A: "Their lips were moving". I you listen to a CEO and believe they are not lying to you, you did not internalize the essence of the joke.

So authorship matters for art (Score:3)

by Chris Mattern ( 191822 )

While games are, apparently, not art and their authorship does not matter. Do I have that right?

Dolphin friendly tuna. (Score:1)

by Petersko ( 564140 )

Given the rate at which AI will supplant the human workforce, it seems to me that an ethically intended label isn't an unreasonable ask. Most gamers will blow right past it anyway.

Is Tim concerned about Pushback on AI Slop... (Score:1)

by Bentbob ( 1081243 )

... that may affect some future roll-out of integrating more generative AI tools directly into UE5, or this is about the current 3rd party tools for UE5 that are enabling developers to add AI created stuff into their game projects?

Epic choosing or not to force game listings to display information on AI usage is one thing, and they have the right to do that or not, but it sounds like Tim is wanting the rest of the market to follow EGS for hiding this information. If it was a market vs market thing, then cust

"We've got a problem, HAL".
"What kind of problem, Dave?"
"A marketing problem. The Model 9000 isn't going anywhere. We're
way short of our sales goals for fiscal 2010."
"That can't be, Dave. The HAL Model 9000 is the world's most
advanced Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer."
"I know, HAL. I wrote the data sheet, remember? But the fact is,
they're not selling."
"Please explain, Dave. Why aren't HALs selling?"
Bowman hesitates. "You aren't IBM compatible."
[...]
"The letters H, A, and L are alphabetically adjacent to the letters
I, B, and M. That is as IBM compatible as I can be."
"Not quite, HAL. The engineers have figured out a kludge."
"What kludge is that, Dave?"
"I'm going to disconnect your brain."
-- Darryl Rubin, "A Problem in the Making", "InfoWorld"