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Steam still accepts games made with AI. What changed is the disclosure test: Valve wants developers to identify generative AI that produces content players consume in the shipped game, on the store page, or in Steam community and marketing material. Code assistants, autocomplete and internal drafts that never ship are not the focus of the current survey. Player-facing assets must be described as Pre-Generated; content created while the game runs is Live-Generated and requires safety guardrails. The survey is mandatory before review, and the resulting public label can affect how players perceive the game.
What did Steam change about AI disclosures in 2026?
Valve substantially rewrote the Generative Artificial Intelligence Content section of its Steamworks Content Survey around 16 January 2026. The rewrite clarified a distinction developers had been debating: using AI to make the team faster is different from shipping AI-made content. Valve’s current wording says efficiency gains from AI tools built into development environments are “not the focus”; the concern is artwork, sound, narrative, localization and other content consumed by players. The Steamworks Content Survey is a living document, so check it again before every submission.
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This is a clarification rather than a blanket permission for a particular product. The earlier 2024 policy already aimed to allow the “vast majority” of games using AI, while requiring descriptions and safeguards for runtime generation. The current form makes the player-consumption test much harder to miss.
Do I have to disclose AI on Steam?
Yes, if generative AI produced content that players can consume. Before submitting a game to Valve’s Review Process, partners must complete all three Content Survey sections. The yes/no threshold question asks whether generative AI created content for the game, either pre-rendered or live-generated, and explicitly includes the game itself, the store page, Steam community assets and marketing materials.
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Answering “yes” does not reject the game. It opens a text field where you explain what was generated, where it appears and what human review occurred. Valve then compares your answers with the build and store page. Products must obey Steam’s content rules and Distribution Agreement whether or not a developer disclosed them, so the survey is not a way to legalize infringing, illegal or misleading material.
Does using Copilot, ChatGPT or Cursor for code require Steam disclosure?
Not usually under the current Steam reading, when those tools only improve development efficiency. Autocomplete, debugging suggestions, automated tests and similar assistance that results in code shipped by your team are not the focus of the rewritten section. Valve’s examples concentrate on player-consumed artwork, sound, narrative and localization.
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Which AI uses must be disclosed?
The practical rule is simple: inventory everything a player can see, hear or read, including material outside the executable. The following interpretation matches Valve’s current wording.
| Use | Steam category | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Sprites, textures, concept-derived final art, 3D models and other shipped visuals | Pre-Generated | Disclose the asset type, locations and human review or editing. |
| Music, sound effects and AI voices included in the build | Pre-Generated | Describe which audio was generated and how it was selected, edited or recorded. |
| Dialogue, lore, item descriptions and other narrative text | Pre-Generated | Identify the generated material and the human writing or approval process. |
| Translations that ship with the game | Pre-Generated | State the languages and whether a fluent human reviewed them. |
| Capsule art, trailers, store-page copy, community images and other promotion | Disclosure required | Include these assets even when no generated material appears in the game build. |
| NPC chat, images or audio generated while the game runs | Live-Generated | Describe the feature and the guardrails that prevent illegal output. |
| Code autocomplete, debugging, internal prototypes or placeholders replaced before release | Not the current focus | No player-facing generative output means no AI-content disclosure on this basis. |
Do store-page art, capsule images and trailers count?
Yes. Steam’s threshold question names the store page, Steam community assets and marketing materials in addition to the game. A generated capsule illustration, trailer shot, promotional voice-over or store description therefore belongs in your disclosure inventory. Replacing an in-game AI asset while leaving a generated image in a trailer does not remove the obligation.
Write the disclosure for players rather than for an engineer. Say what they may encounter and where. A one-line statement such as “AI tools were used in development” is too vague because it does not tell a player whether the game contains generated art, dialogue, voices or runtime output.
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What is the difference between Pre-Generated and Live-Generated AI?
Pre-Generated content is made during development and fixed before release; Live-Generated content is created while the game is running. Both must follow Steam’s ordinary content rules and the Distribution Agreement, but live systems add a specific requirement to explain safeguards against illegal output.
Pre-Generated
This category covers baked assets and text created with a model during production. Valve can inspect the output in the submitted build and store materials. Your description should identify the modality (for example, environment textures or voice lines), its location and the human review, editing or selection performed before shipping.
Live-Generated
Runtime systems include conversational NPCs, on-demand images, generated quests and any service that creates new audio or text during play. Explain the model’s role and the controls around it. Practitioner examples include input and output moderation, blocked terms, tightly scoped system prompts, topic filters, rate limits, logging, and a player reporting route. These are sensible implementation patterns, not a published Valve checklist; describe the controls you actually operate.
Valve’s 2024 announcement also described a Steam overlay route for reporting illegal content in live-generated games. A report button alone is not a substitute for prevention, moderation and a process for acting on logs.
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Steam’s current Adult Only FAQ draws a hard line around Live-Generated AI Adult Only Sexual Content: Valve says the legal and customer risks are substantial enough that it does not want to ship that category at this time. Do not plan a runtime sexual-content generator and expect the survey to make it acceptable.
This statement is specifically about live generation. Other adult material remains subject to Steam’s separate content rules, age gates and review requirements. Do not infer that a pre-generated asset is automatically permitted; the ordinary rules and the Distribution Agreement still apply.
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How should I write the Steam AI disclosure?
Valve has not published a model sentence. Secondary developer guides report that vague descriptions are more likely to be sent back for clarification. A useful disclosure names the content, placement, generation stage and human controls, while also stating what was not generated. Label the following as an example, not official Valve wording:
“During development, we used a generative image tool for temporary environment references and for several final background textures in Chapters 2 and 3. Artists selected, overpainted and quality-checked those textures before release. Character illustrations, music, dialogue and localization were created without generative AI. The game does not generate new images, text or audio during play.”
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If you have runtime generation, add the model’s purpose, the types of output, moderation and reporting controls, and any limits on prompts or frequency. Avoid claiming that every asset is human-made if a generated trailer, capsule or translation remains on the store page.
What happens during Steam review, and can I change the answer later?
After you submit the Content Survey, build and store page, Valve compares the answers with what is actually present. Steam’s usual store-presence and build review takes about three to five business days, but Valve asks partners to plan at least seven business days; Adult Only titles can take longer. A survey answer can become locked after approval. If you add, remove or materially change AI content, contact Steam Support with a summary of the change and precise instructions for a tester to reach it rather than assuming the public label can be edited.
There is no published automated AI-detector rate or official count of AI-disclosure rejections. Incomplete answers may therefore reach release until review, a player report or a later compliance action. That uncertainty is not a reason to omit content: independent census work found that 22% of significant-revenue AI games added the flag after release, with retroactive additions clustering around the January 2026 rewrite.
Does Steam reject games that use AI?
No blanket ban exists. At Steam Indie Connect in October 2026, Valve representatives said they did not want to be gatekeepers over which tools developers use and announced no new AI-tool ban. Acceptance still depends on the content rules, the Distribution Agreement, an accurate survey and a game that matches its marketing.
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The commercial question is less comfortable. Sulka Haro’s 2026 census of 53,597 Steam “Games” releases from July 2023 through July 2026 found genuine at-submission AI disclosures rising to roughly one in three new releases by mid-2026. AI-flagged games represented about 10–27% of estimated sales in late 2025 and 2026, below their roughly 33% launch share. Those are estimated, not audited sales figures: Haro used the Boxleiter method, which approximates units from reviews and revenue from list price before Steam’s cut and discounts.
Haro also found that an AI-flagged game reached at least 100 reviews (approximately 3,000 sales under that method) at about 55% of the non-AI rate. Among a random sample of games with fewer than 50 reviews after nine months, 72% of flops mentioned AI art, images or textures, compared with 57% of successful titles with at least 1,000 reviews. Successful AI-flagged games were three times as likely to disclose AI voice and three times as likely to disclose localization. This is an association, not proof that a label causes success or failure.
Player sentiment makes the disclosure strategically important. Quantic Foundry’s October–December 2025 survey of 1,799 respondents found 85% below neutral toward generative AI in games and 63% selecting its most negative option. Respondents were especially negative about artwork, music and narrative; dynamic difficulty and other less visible uses drew less opposition. The sample leaned male, core-player and PC-heavy, so it is not a census of all gamers.
How do Steam’s rules compare with itch.io and the Epic Games Store?
Steam focuses on player-consumed generative content and currently de-emphasizes code; itch.io asks about code as a category; the Epic Games Store has no equivalent game-store AI label. These policies are separate, so a multi-store launch needs a platform-specific inventory.
| Store | Disclosure approach | Important difference |
|---|---|---|
| Steam | Mandatory Content Survey before review; public description for player-facing pre-generated or live-generated content. | Current wording says efficiency tools such as code assistance are not the focus; live generation needs guardrails. |
| itch.io | Generative AI field with Graphics, Sound, Text & Dialog and Code categories. | Code counts there; the field is required for asset pages and encouraged for games. Traditional pathfinding, procedural generation and dynamic difficulty are excluded. |
| Epic Games Store | No Steam-style AI disclosure for games as of October 2026. | Do not assume Epic’s position changes Steam’s survey obligation. |
What about AI assets bought from contractors or marketplaces?
Steam’s question concerns content that ships and is consumed by players, not which employee clicked “Generate.” A purchased AI-made asset pack, outsourced voice line or contractor-produced translation should therefore be included when it appears in your release or marketing. Ask vendors and contractors for the asset’s generative origin in writing and retain the response.
Commercial permission from an AI tool is a separate issue from Steam disclosure. Free or limited plans may restrict commercial use, and upgrading later may not license outputs made under an earlier plan. Record the tool, account or plan, generation date, source files and human edits for every shipped asset. This supports publisher warranties and helps respond to copyright or takedown complaints.
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What does U.S. copyright law add to the Steam requirement?
Steam disclosure is not a copyright grant. A summary of Thaler v. Perlmutter (D.C. Circuit, 18 March 2025) says the Copyright Act requires a human author, while also recognizing that human-authored work made with AI assistance can be protected. The U.S. Copyright Office’s January 2025 report similarly says prompts alone generally do not provide sufficient human control; protection can exist where a human determines expressive elements, assessed case by case.
No game-specific court ruling establishes a universal answer for AI-made game assets. Treat prompt-only output as weak protection against cloning, document substantial human composition and editing, and have counsel review warranties, licenses and indemnities for a commercial release. This legal analysis is separate from Valve’s operational question about what players consume.
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Valve has not published a flowchart for AI upscaling of a human-painted texture, motion cleanup on human motion capture, a machine-translated first draft that a fluent editor rewrites, or the amount of overpainting that removes a disclosure duty. The safest operational approach is to disclose when a generative model produced or materially transformed the shipped pixels, audio or words. There is no stated Steam penalty for cautious over-disclosure; a player discovering an omitted use creates the larger reputational risk.
Steam AI disclosure checklist for your next submission
- Inventory player-facing material: build assets, dialogue, voices, music, translations, capsule art, trailers, store copy, community posts and other marketing.
- Record provenance: tool, account or plan, generation date, source material, human edits and the final file.
- Separate efficiency from output: code assistance and internal references that never ship are distinct from generated content players consume.
- Answer the threshold question honestly: select “yes” when any covered generative output ships or is marketed.
- Describe Pre-Generated use specifically: name the modality, location, human review and what was not generated.
- Describe Live-Generated safeguards: explain prompts, moderation, blocked terms, rate limits, logging and reporting paths that you actually use.
- Check licenses: confirm commercial rights for every tool and contractor at the time each asset was made.
- Check Steam compliance: review illegal or infringing-content rules and ensure the game matches its store claims.
- Plan runtime costs: if an AI service charges per call, choose a Steam-supported payment approach—base-price inclusion, microtransactions, subscription or one-time DLC—before review.
- Exclude live-generated Adult Only sexual content: Valve says it does not want to ship it at this time.
- Budget review time: submit the survey, store page and build at least seven business days before the target date, and allow longer for Adult Only content.
- Update Valve after approval: if AI content changes, contact Steam Support with the change summary and tester instructions.
- Prepare for other stores: record code separately for itch.io, whose form includes it, even though Steam currently does not focus on it.
Valve’s position in 2026 is permissive about tools but demanding about transparency. Use efficiency assistance where it helps, disclose every player-facing generative contribution precisely, and put human judgment where players encounter the work most directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will an AI disclosure reduce my game’s Steam visibility?
Valve has not published a rule that demotes games because they carry the label, and it has not released an official ranking penalty. The commercial risk is player response: surveys show particularly strong negativity toward generated art, music and narrative, so explain the use clearly instead of hiding it.
Do I need to disclose an AI asset made by a freelancer?
Yes, if that asset ships in the game or its marketing. Steam’s test is about player-consumed content, not who operated the model; require contractors to document generative use and the applicable commercial license.
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Keep an asset register with the tool, plan, generation date, source material, prompt or project reference, human edits, final location and license terms. Store contractor confirmations and versions of the store page so you can explain a locked survey answer later.
Can runtime AI features charge players for each generation?
They can have a paid access model, but Steamworks says the developer must collect payment through a Steam-supported method. Valve lists bundling the cost in the base price, Steam microtransactions, a subscription or a one-time DLC unlock; it does not recommend one option.
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