Valve at Steam Indie Connect: no tool gatekeeping, Next Fest low-quality games acknowledged

Valve staff spoke at a Steam Indie Connect event in Korea, according to a write-up of the talk shared on Reddit. Steam revenue in South Korea grew 126% over the past five years, the write-up says. Premium game and DLC revenue rose 70%, and in-game purchase revenue rose 388%.

On AI copycats, Tom Giardino said it was the first time he had heard of extortion cases and expressed regret. He said Valve does not want to tell developers which tools to use, and that using AI is the developer's decision. He noted that clone games predate AI and that AI has sped up the pace. Valve has not leaned on DRM or anti-piracy measures, he said, and treats AI cloning the same way. His advice was to keep growing a game with features and personality rather than rely on one easily copied mechanic.

On Steam Next Fest, which now has more than 7,000 participants, Marc Wilkinson described how visibility works. For the first two days, games are shown to players on a virtually random basis. Personalized recommendations then take over. He said many articles about floods of low-quality games were based only on those first two days. Random exposure is meant to prevent abuse by developers entering early for instant visibility and to give every game a fair share. He acknowledged that some low-quality games get exposed, said Valve is aware of it, and said many people there are thinking about how to solve it.

Wilkinson also said success varies by game, with some teams pleased by 10,000 wishlists and others disappointed by 50,000. Valve cannot define success for an individual game, he said. The speakers noted that developers asked for filters when Steam Greenlight launched about 14 years ago, and for a way to hide Steam Direct games when that system arrived. Valve's answer each time was to improve the shopping experience rather than limit developer access.

Giardino said the Personal Calendar centers on recency and is close to the only Steam space devoted to brand-new releases. It is designed to reach deep into the catalog, he said, and surfaces games based on signals that they suit a given player rather than on top-seller status. Valve will keep refining it.

On VR, Giardino said Valve still believes in it. Many Steam Frame users play standard library games and use the Frame as a display, he said. He described VR as a chicken-and-egg problem between developers and players. Rising prices for parts such as RAM and memory raised costs across hardware, Valve's included, and Valve had wanted to price Steam Frame lower, he said. He added that Valve feels sorry for VR developers. The write-up's author concluded that Valve did not offer a definitive fix for AI slop or cloning.