Valve Tells Developers to Outbuild AI Clones as Guardrails Thin

Valve has effectively told developers to out-innovate their AI clones rather than expect policing, with Steam business team member Tom Giardino saying at Steam Indie Connect: "Rather than relying on a single mechanic that someone can easily copy, you need to keep growing your game by adding features, personality, and creativity that stem from your own perspective."

His response, reported by Inven, came in answer to questions about games being copied using AI tools like Claude — and developers being held to ransom by copycat threats. So far, Valve has shown no appetite for dedicating resources to separating clones from originals at volume. That's a live question for every platform holder, not just Steam.

How bad is the cloning problem?

Bad enough that App Store reviews for new games are taking longer, because the volume of AI-developed content is clogging pipelines built for a smaller industry. Platform holders haven't figured out how existing review systems — already stretched by too many releases — can absorb the flood without bottlenecks.

The mechanics are blunt. Developers report that people using AI tools can copy a game from a demo or a trailer alone. On the PocketGamer.biz podcast, one case surfaced of a person decompiling apps and games to uncover their 'secrets' in a matter of minutes.

Mark Brown of Game Maker's Toolkit is now a case study. His game Word Play was copied by Claude users who then contacted him — apparently seeking permission for a commercial launch. Brown, who discussed the issue at length in his newsletter and on YouTube, made two distinct points: copying a whole game differs from taking inspiration from what came before, and months of his work can now be replicated in minutes. That threatens the regular income his game generates.

"I just do not know what to think about this at all," said Brown. For now, he has asked the people copying Word Play to hold off.

What has actually changed?

Anthropic has stepped in: it now blocks Claude users from recreating specific games. Brown's own caveat applies — it remains to be seen whether users route around that restriction or simply switch to tools without such guardrails.

Where does generative AI genuinely help studios?

Away from the clone wars, industry attitudes are settling into something more sober. Village Studio founder Will Luton listed what he considers undeniable for games:

• Consumers generally dislike publicly facing AI content — art, video, sound — especially on console and PC.
• It does speed up development.
• It is less impactful than some hoped.
• It has not yet been meaningfully implemented as a game mechanic.

Alisa Eren, organic growth lead at Burny Games, uses AI daily to extend her team's output. "After several weeks spent optimising our processes, my team can now handle at least twice as much work per week without overtime," she said.

Wenfeng Yang, founder of Big Bang Accelerator, named concrete use cases: low-poly asset creation, prototyping, ad creatives, A/B tests and product analysis. "That's why I'm more confident about AI than I was about the metaverse. For me, AI has passed a simple test: teams are using it to get real work done. I see it as a lasting change in how games are made, what players experience and how companies work," Yang said.

What happens next?

The debate moves to the conference circuit shortly: Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan runs November 7-8, PGC Summit Montréal follows on November 10, and PGC London on January 18-19 will feature an AI Gamechangers Summit. Watch whether Anthropic's block on recreating specific games holds — and whether any other model provider follows suit before regulators or platform holders are forced to act.