The latest edition of Steam’s Next Fest event is currently live, running between October 19 and 26, giving game developers the chance to showcase their upcoming titles on the store. All featured games have playable demos for Steam users to try out, but the quality so far can leave much to be desired. Some gamers feel that the event is being “absolutely ruined by AI” due to a reliance on AI-generated content.

With the growing use of generative AI in game development, Steam users have become accustomed to even the highest-budget games coming with a small AI disclosure. That’s all well and good for many people, as long as it’s not painfully obvious in the final product, but most will be turned off by the sight of obvious AI-generated art front and center on a game’s Steam store page, and it’s abundant during Next Fest.

More than one in three Next Fest games have an AI disclosure

Back during the Next Fest in June, data sourced from SteamDB revealed that nearly 20% of games involved in the event came with a generative AI warning. For October’s event, this has grown by around 16%, with more than 36% labeled as such. According to the database site, the ongoing Next Fest is hosting 7,145 new upcoming titles across a wide range of genres.

By using a filter that allows us to exclude any games with AI content disclosed, this number drops to just 4,552, leaving a total of 2,593 games with the AI disclaimer – representing just over 36% of the entire Next Fest October 2026 catalog. We’re only talking about games here, so this doesn’t count any other media hosted on Steam, such as software or music.

It is also worth pointing out that PC gamers have shown to be skeptical of Steam’s AI disclaimers before, as Valve isn’t using any automated tools to catch out developers – it just has to take their word for it. In any case, it didn’t take a lot of scrolling (practically none) to see what looks like generative AI in a game’s key art. Like it or not, it’s likely here to stay, but, as one game dev says on Reddit, the dwindling reputation of Next Fest is a cause for concern when featuring your own game in the festival.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.