Epic Games CEO Dismisses Valve’s Generative AI Disclosures

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, is somewhat known for being vocal about many topics within the gaming industry, and he is the latest in a long line of game studio CEOs to share his thoughts on generative AI. In a recent post on X, Sweeney commented that the generative AI disclosures that Valve makes developers and publishers display on Steam make “no sense for game stores, where AI will be involved in nearly all future production.” Not only is this confirmation that we will likely not see Epic Games Store require developers to disclose the use of generative AI, but it also suggests that generative AI is already being widely used within Epic Games. Curiously, Sketchfab, which has been a part of Epic Games since 2021, recently started requiring a disclosure for creations made using generative AI—although there’s a good chance this was simply a legal requirement to help Epic Games avoid copyright and licensing issues.

Both assertion that generative AI will be used in nearly all future game projects and that disclosure is unnecessary were widely met with criticism in the response to Sweeney’s comments, with many gamers simply saying they had a right to know, likening it to false advertising messaging and game trailers that have to disclose whether footage used in the trailer is from the game or not. Others went so far as to say that they would like to know when games were made with generative AI, so that they could “spend their money elsewhere.” Sweeney’s comments come shortly after EA and Krafton pivoted to include more AI in their workflows—sometimes with disastrous results—and the CEO of Take-Two advocated for integrating AI into games in lieu of having voice actors act out all of the dialogue for a game.