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Freedom251 › Blog › Epic Games Store

How Steam’s AI Disclosure Policy Compares With Epic Games Store’s

By Freedom251 Team · · 9 min read

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Steam requires developers to disclose generative-AI content that players consume in a shipped game, while Epic Games Store’s published requirements reviewed here do not require an equivalent AI disclosure field or storefront label. Steam separates content created before release from content generated while the game is running. Live-generation disclosures must also explain safety guardrails and provide an in-game route for reporting potentially illegal output.

The difference is therefore both procedural and philosophical: Valve treats AI disclosure as consumer information and part of release review, while Epic’s public requirements emphasize general content, ratings, intellectual property and safety rules. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has also publicly criticized mandatory storefront AI labels.

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Does Steam make games disclose AI use?

Yes, but the requirement is narrower than “tell Valve about every AI tool used by the studio.” Steam’s Content Survey asks developers to describe generative-AI implementation when AI-produced material is shipped in the game and consumed by players. Valve reviews that information before release and publishes much of it on the game’s Steam store page.

The policy was announced on January 10, 2024. Its practical focus is the output a player encounters—such as artwork, sound, narrative or localization—not every productivity technique used during development.

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What Valve asks developers to describe

  • Where generative AI was used in the game’s player-facing content.
  • Whether that content was created before release or generated during play.
  • For live generation, what controls are intended to prevent illegal output.
  • How players can report potentially illegal material produced in the game.

Valve’s stated reason is transparency and risk review. Its Steamworks Development announcement said the disclosure would be used in pre-release review and that much of it would appear on the store page so customers could understand how the game uses AI.

What counts as AI-generated content on Steam?

Steam’s policy distinguishes two categories: pre-generated content made during development and live-generated content created while the game is running. Both categories concern material that ships with the game and is consumed by players.

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Pre-generated content

Pre-generated content is made with AI assistance during development, then included in the released build. Examples can include character images, environmental art, voice or sound assets, written dialogue, quests, stories and translated text. The important test is not whether a human edited the result; it is whether AI helped create content that players receive as part of the game.

Valve says it evaluates this output in its normal pre-release review. That includes questions that apply to other game content too: whether the material is legal, whether it infringes someone else’s rights and whether it is consistent with the game’s marketing promises. A disclosure is not permission to use infringing training material or an exemption from ordinary content rules.

Live-generated content

Live-generated content is produced by an AI system while the game is running. A conversational character that invents replies, a system that creates a new image in response to a player prompt, or a generator that writes new quest text during a session would fit this description when the output reaches players.

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Live generation brings two additional obligations in Valve’s description. Developers must explain the guardrails designed to prevent illegal content, and players must have an in-game overlay reporting path for potentially illegal output. The reporting mechanism is aimed at material generated during play, where a fixed pre-release inspection cannot examine every possible result.

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Does using GitHub Copilot or another code helper require Steam disclosure?

Not when the tool is used only to improve development efficiency and does not create content that players consume. Steam’s current wording says efficiency gains from AI-powered development tools are not the focus of the policy. A January 2026 report on Valve’s rewritten guidance specifically described code helpers and similar productivity tools as outside the disclosure requirement under that clarification.

The boundary is the shipped output, not the marketing name of the software. If a code assistant helps a developer write an inventory system, that is an internal production aid. If an AI system generates dialogue, textures or voices that appear in the released game, those player-facing results fall within the disclosure focus. A studio can use both kinds of tools in one project, so it should describe the player-consumed use rather than treating “AI used” as a single yes-or-no category.

Does Epic Games Store have an AI label?

Epic Games Store’s official Store Requirements and Content Requirements reviewed for this comparison do not specify a generative-AI disclosure field or an equivalent storefront label. Those documents set rules for distribution, technical operation, ratings, promotional material, accuracy, prohibited content, intellectual-property rights, media assets and user-generated content, but they do not describe a Steam-style AI declaration.

That wording is deliberately limited. It means the published requirements reviewed here do not require an equivalent disclosure; it does not prove that no Epic employee, product page or future program could ever mention AI. A developer should follow the current Epic submission documentation for the relevant product and region rather than infer a permanent policy from the absence of one field.

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What the absence of a label does and does not tell players

  • It does not establish that a game sold through Epic uses no AI.
  • It does not establish that a game uses AI either.
  • It means players cannot rely on the reviewed general requirements to receive a standardized AI-use notice comparable to Steam’s.

How do Steam and Epic’s policies compare?

The clearest difference is that Steam has a named disclosure workflow tied to player-consumed generative content, while Epic’s reviewed rules do not create an equivalent workflow. The comparison below reflects the published requirements and public statements described above, not a claim about every individual game or future policy change.

Policy axis Steam Epic Games Store
Developer obligation Describe AI use in player-consumed content shipped with the game through the Content Survey. No equivalent AI-disclosure requirement was found in the reviewed official requirements.
Scope Pre-generated and live-generated content; efficiency-only AI tooling is outside the stated focus. General content, rating, intellectual-property, safety and distribution rules are specified; no generative-AI field is specified.
Player-facing treatment Valve says much of the disclosure appears on the Steam store page. No equivalent AI label is specified in the reviewed requirements.
Runtime AI Developers describe guardrails, and players receive an in-game route to report potentially illegal live-generated output. No comparable AI-specific runtime disclosure and reporting mechanism is specified in the reviewed requirements.
Public rationale Valve frames disclosure as transparency and part of pre-release risk review. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has publicly opposed mandatory storefront labels.

Why do Steam and Epic take different approaches?

Steam’s approach treats the way content was made as information a customer may reasonably want before buying or playing. It also treats live generation as a special safety problem: because the final output can change from one session to the next, the developer must explain preventive controls and give players a way to flag illegal results.

Epic’s public position is more skeptical of mandatory labels. In comments quoted by VGC, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney asked, “Why stop at AI use? We could have mandatory disclosures for what shampoo brand the developer uses. Customers deserve to know lol.” His argument is that AI will become common throughout production and that a label could stigmatize games rather than give useful context.

Those positions produce different kinds of uncertainty. Steam gives players a visible disclosure, but the label still depends on what the developer reports and how Valve summarizes it. Epic’s published requirements avoid a dedicated label, so a player must look elsewhere for information supplied voluntarily by a developer or publisher.

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What should a developer do before submitting a Steam game?

A studio can make the Steam process easier by separating player-facing output from internal tooling and by documenting how any runtime generator is controlled. The following workflow mirrors the policy distinctions rather than treating all AI use as identical.

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  1. Inventory the shipped content. List artwork, audio, voices, writing, localization and other assets that players will see or hear. Mark which assets were created with generative AI assistance.
  2. Separate fixed from runtime output. Put assets created during development in the pre-generated category. Identify systems that create new material after launch or during a play session as live-generated.
  3. Record the player experience. Describe where the output appears, how often it can change and whether players can prompt or otherwise influence it. This gives Valve and customers more useful information than a generic statement that “AI was used.”
  4. Document live-generation safeguards. Explain filters, moderation, prompt restrictions, blocked categories, human review or other controls intended to prevent illegal output. Do not present a safeguard as a guarantee that no problematic result can ever occur.
  5. Implement the reporting route. For live-generated systems, provide the in-game overlay path Valve requires for reports of potentially illegal output, and make sure reports can be associated with the relevant session or generated item.
  6. Check legal and marketing consistency. Review generated assets for infringement and confirm that store copy does not imply a level of human authorship, originality or runtime generation that the game does not provide.
  7. Answer the Content Survey precisely. Include the player-consumed use that falls within the policy. Efficiency-only code assistance should not be substituted for, or used to obscure, disclosure of generated game content.
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What should players look for in a Steam AI disclosure?

Read the disclosure as a description of implementation, not as a quality score or an independent certification. “Pre-generated” suggests that the relevant material was made before release and shipped as part of the build; “live-generated” indicates that the game can create new output during play and therefore has the additional guardrail and reporting considerations.

Players who are concerned about copyright, voice imitation, offensive material or unpredictable dialogue should look for which medium is affected and whether generation is optional. A game may use AI for background localization while keeping its central narrative fixed, or it may make AI conversation a core mechanic. The category alone does not measure how prominent the feature is.

What are the limits of this Steam-versus-Epic comparison?

Neither policy supplies a reliable percentage of games using AI, and there is no authoritative Steam-versus-Epic compliance or adoption statistic established here. Third-party counts of Steam disclosures, if cited elsewhere, should be treated as dated estimates rather than official measurements of the entire catalog.

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The public wording also does not establish a universal rule for every future patch, downloadable asset or change to a live service. Developers adding generative features after launch should check the current submission documentation and update their disclosures when the platform asks for new information. Players should likewise treat a missing notice on one storefront as a limit of that storefront’s disclosure system, not as proof about the game’s development history.

What does this mean for buying or publishing a game?

For a publisher choosing a distribution channel, Steam currently offers a formal way to tell customers about player-facing generative content and imposes extra expectations for live systems. Epic’s reviewed requirements may be simpler in this narrow respect because they do not specify an equivalent AI field, but that simplicity also means less standardized information for shoppers.

For a player comparing the same title across stores, the presence of a Steam disclosure and the absence of an Epic label are not contradictory claims about the game. They reflect different platform policies. The most defensible conclusion is that Steam requires disclosure of specified player-consumed AI content, while Epic’s published rules reviewed here do not require the same disclosure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a Steam AI disclosure prove that every listed asset was made by AI?

No. The disclosure explains how a developer says AI was used; it is not an asset-by-asset forensic certification. Human editing, ordinary procedural tools and other production methods may still be part of the same pipeline.

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If an Epic store page has no AI notice, does that mean the game contains no AI?

No. The absence of a standardized notice reflects the reviewed store requirements, not a finding about the game’s production. Developers may still volunteer information in descriptions, interviews or support documents.

Does Steam’s policy specify what happens when a game adds live AI after launch?

The public policy description summarized here does not set out a complete patch-by-patch procedure. A studio adding runtime generation should check the current Steamworks submission guidance and keep its disclosure and reporting path aligned with the feature.

Are there official statistics showing how many Steam games disclose AI use?

No authoritative Steam-versus-Epic adoption or compliance percentage is established here. Catalog counts published by third parties should be dated and labeled as estimates, because they may use different definitions of disclosure and AI content.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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