Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has spent months blasting Steam's AI content disclosure rules. Just days after Epic finished overhauling its own store, he took aim again on X, lashing out at Steam's mandatory AI disclosure policy as "repugnant," adding another chapter to his tug-of-war with Valve.
This time, the trigger was an argument put forward by Matt Workman of generative media company Fal: by 2026, AI disclosure will no longer mean much. Sweeney replied to the post and went even further—he argued that disclosure labels amount to forcing developers to write a "political statement," which can easily be seized on by online extremist groups and used to attack them.
This was not the first time he had spoken out. In an earlier interview, Sweeney called Valve "highly irresponsible" and singled out an "opposition group that wants to destroy the game industry." But Valve's stance has not budged, and its platform rules still firmly require that if developers use generative AI to produce content, they must disclose it to players.
The rules have actually been nuanced for a while: since 2024, Steam has required disclosure of generative AI use, but only for content directly produced by AI, such as art, music, mechanics, text, and promotional materials. AI-assisted coding is not included. Today, labels have become the norm—at Next Fest, nearly 1,700 of more than 8,600 demos carried labels, close to 20%. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Arc Raiders carried labels and were still huge hits.
Its own store also uses AI—but it is riddled with bugs
Ironically, the newly revamped Epic Games Store was built precisely with "vibe coding," and the company says it launches in only 5.47 seconds, faster than Steam's 10 seconds. But many users report that the new version is full of bugs and glitches, and Epic has yet to fix them. Meanwhile, Steam keeps users hooked by running itself like a large online game, and has consistently chosen silence in response to Sweeney's repeated attacks—including over the recent Steam Deck price increase.