Valve has responded to indie developers worried about AI slop and AI cloned games flooding Steam, with the company saying it won't act as a gatekeeper on which tools developers use, but it does want to hear about developers being threatened with AI clones of their games.

The comments come from Inven Global's report on Steam Indie Connect, a developer event held in Busan, South Korea, on October 27, where Valve's Steam Business Team members Tom Giardino and Marc Wilkinson took questions from developers. One indie developer said studios have been receiving extortion emails that read, "If you don't pay, we'll clone your game with AI and release it first," and asked whether Steam has any plans to implement protections for developers.

It was only recently that I reported on an indie game developer receiving an extortion email demanding $200 in Steam items within 24 hours for them not to release a clone of the developer's game. Giardino said it was the first he had heard of such cases, called them a matter for law enforcement, and added, "If you report such cases to us, we want to look into them further and help in whatever way we can."

So, is Valve changing its rules on AI? No new policy was announced. Giardino said, "We don't want to be gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn't use," and explained that clones were around long before AI, with developers spotting an interesting concept during Steam Next Fest and quickly making a similar game.

It’s another example of how even a successful AAA release doesn’t necessarily translate into job security anymore..

The inscription warned of an ancient evil sealed within the tomb: “No mortal can resist its power.” Bracing themselves for unspeakable horrors, the explorers opened the tomb and discovered that the warning was entirely accurate. The cuteness was irresistible.

More details (thanks to Shinobi for summarising):

Team is comprised of new devs + veterans from the first game

▪️Mix of both old and new, claustrophobic interior spaces where the player feels trapped

▪️Exterior spaces where the Xenomorph learns to hunt and adapt in the open, player feels exposed and vulnerable

▪️Expands the interplay of systems-driven gameplay from the first game, no two playthroughs will be the same

▪️Takes place months after the events of the first game

▪️Xenomorph is more intelligent, reacts to the player better, improved to function in spaces 10x bigger than the original

▪️It will not stop hunting you when you go outdoors, more aggressive, use weather to hide its movements, new things it learns and changes its behavior

▪️Xenomorph is about "purity", "it's the purest expression of the 1979 original Alien"

▪️You can distract the xenomorph with items and other environmental opportunities

▪️Where Sevastopol was clean and clinical and more Weyland, Kurosaki (planet) in this game is dirty, grungy, inclement weather, more Yutani etc

▪️Photo mode will be included

The new one has better stats. The old one has been through some shit.

If you had an N64 but never played Ocarina of Time.

Maybe you had an Xbox but skipped the Halo games.

Or it was The Last or Us on PlayStation 3 that never tickled your fancy.

What games were touted as "system sellers" that you never got?

I imagine some program that has many different campaigns, whichever you choose you then create your character from scratch (or take some default one) and then the narrator/DM starts and it's understandable even for people who never played DND.

It would be lots of text probably (no voice for DM/narrator) but still has some nice map and items and such.

I've always been interested and wanted to try DND, but none of my friends has time for this, and even I don't really have time for it, so I much rather trying first at my pace such that my schedule isn't a problem, and when I come back to the game there could be an option of quick recap or something like that.

A24‘s fantasy video game adaptation Elden Ring is heading to the American Film Market where it’ll be the biggest-budget standalone project ever on sale at a film or TV market.

We hear from sources the budget is being pegged between $175M-$200M, but closer to the latter, which takes the project beyond previous tentpoles that have hit markets, including the latest Hunger Games instalment. Mel Gibson’s upcoming Resurrection Of The Christ films came with a near-$200M price tag but across two films.

Currently in post, the Alex Garland-scripted and directed action epic is the talk of the acquisitions community given its scale and ambition. We can reveal today that Amazon MGM has pre-empted that interest by taking a bunch of international pay-1 streaming rights off the table in a big deal. The pact is understood to cover a large number of international markets and sources speculate to us that it is easily worth tens of millions of dollars. We hear the deal could also potentially lead to interesting activations on Amazon’s Twitch platform.

Cast includes Kit Connor, Nick Offerman, Ben Whishaw, Cailee Spaeny, Tom Burke, Havana Rose Liu, Sonoya Mizuno, Jonathan Pryce, Ruby Cruz. The A-list creative team includes costume designer Jenny Beavan, hair and makeup designer Paul Gooch, and production designers Mark Digby and Michelle Day. David J Thompson is DoP.

Garland wrapped over the summer and is now in post with Industrial Light & Magic. Release is set for March 2028 in theaters and IMAX.

The script has been closely guarded in the period leading up to next week’s AFM in Los Angeles in ways generally reserved for the biggest IP. In what seems to be an industry first, A24 is flying members of its team directly to international buyers for them to read the script with the staffer present. It’s a long read. We hear it runs to at least 180 pages with visuals, implying the movie could push towards three hours.

While plot details are largely being kept under wraps we understand that in-demand Heartstopper actor Connor is the protagonist and the “faithful” film will follow his journey. There are said to be battles between his character and impressive monsters and dragons. But such is the secrecy around the project that parts of the script are being held back from buyers in what is presumably a bid to avoid spoilers and increase intrigue. There is due to be some kind of presentation at the AFM, potentially with footage.

Anyone who played 2 knows how good it was and knows how addicting the Chao garden was. The game was a lot of fun, great art, and had one of the most underrated original soundtracks like ever. They really hit gold with that entire system of playing a level then taking what you collected to this totally innovative and fresh pet competition system. How can they just leave that and never expand upon it ever again? I know many grown adult men who would instantly purchase a sequel to this. 1000 worse games have gotten sequels since.

Edit: Some people are saying Sonic 06 was basically adventure 3 but in this interview the Sonic team head says "When we talk about Chao Garden specifically, I know everyone’s like “I want Chao Garden, I want Chao Garden”. But Chao Garden is a piece… it’s part of the whole Sonic Adventure series game. It’s not a standalone game, it’s integrated into the whole Adventure series gameplay, so we can’t just break it off and make it a thing. And so it’s like, alright, well if you’re asking for Chao Garden and Adventure 3 then that’s pretty much asking for Adventure 3." https://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/interviews/interview-sonic-team-on-how-looking-back-helped-sonic-move-forwards/

So no we haven't had Adventure 3 yet lol.

I think everyone would be a little happier with more Nintendo in their life! Thanks Earthbound!

https://www.pokemonunite.jp/en/topics/notice/20261027-en/

I'd love to see the old Activision Spider-Man games come back, especially Spider-Man 2. I miss games like that, and it'd be great to play them on modern consoles again. What old game would you bring back?

I don't normally talk about this but I think about this frequently. "Why don't we have more video games protagonists/characters who are left-handed"? While majority of people never think about this, I have always felt somewhat left out as a left-handed gamer. Never enough to shy me away from any games, of course, but its so strange that it isn't more common, especially in games with fully customizable characters.

I bring this up because as I was watching the Nintendo Indie Direct while I worked a trailer for the game Winds of Viridia was being shown. I didn't think much of it, but I couldn't help but notice the MC was left-handed and it made me feel pretty good.

I know this is mostly nothing potatoes, but I genuinely hope that future games open up the option for playable characters to be left-handed.