Game Developer Falsely Accused of Using AI

In January of this year, Steam announced that it was updating its AI disclosure policy. No longer would developers need to disclose every use of AI and, instead, only disclose assets that shipped with the game. 

This was a major change from its policy just two years prior, which required companies to disclose any and all AI usage in creating their games. 

The new policy was, to put it mildly, controversial. Some, including Tim Sweeney, the owner of Steam’s main competitor, the Epic Games Store, felt that requiring any disclosure didn’t make sense.

Gamers, however, had a very different feeling. By and large, gamers were angry about the potential for AI-generated content in their games. One indie developer even withdrew a game over the backlash they received for using AI. 

Simply put, AI has become a dirty word among gamers. However, as one story shows, innocent studios are getting caught in the crossfire as they face accusations for something they didn’t do, or at least didn’t do intentionally.

Crime Scene Cleaner: No AI Allowed

Disclosure: I am a fan of Crime Scene Cleaner, it’s how I learned about this controversy. However, I have no connection with President Studio or anyone involved in the making of the game.

President Studio is a small Warsaw-based game development company that was founded in 2018.

In April 2024, the company put out its first title, Crime Scene Cleaner Prologue, a free one-level demo of their upcoming game, Crime Scene Cleaner. 

The demo attracted widespread praise and became popular with streamers. 

However, it was when the full game released in August that things really began to take off for both the studio and the game. The game shot up in popularity and earned an “Overwhelmingly Positive” review score on Steam. According to SteamDB, the game is one of the top 100 highest-rated games on Steam.

By October 2025, the game had sold over 1 million copies on Steam alone. However, the studio continued to pour more work into the game. It released a “Nightmare Update” for the game in July 2025 and a “Communiti (sic) Update” in October. Once again, the fans were incredibly excited as this meant more free content for the game they already bought.

However, last week the studio launched its biggest update so far. Dubbed “Act 2”, it extended the story of the game with five more levels and an entirely new story arc. Unfortunately, the reception was not as warm. Several reviewers took to Steam to give the game negative reviews, accusing the studio of using AI to generate several assets.

On Thursday, the company took to their Steam page to post a clarification about their AI policy. The post made it clear that they do not use AI in their game development, but they do use pre-made assets from reputable stores. Though they try to verify that those assets are not AI, there’s no way to be 100% sure.

They encouraged players who were concerned about a particular asset to notify them via Discord. However, they added that some human-created artwork, including a prominent logo featured in the game, may have an “AI Feel” but were actually created by a human artist at the company.

Nonetheless, the company did replace some controversial assets as part of a patch. This, along with the statement, seems to have quelled much of the backlash. However, it does highlight the impossible position that video game developers find themselves in.

The Impossibility of Avoiding AI

President Studio does what almost every other small video game development studio does. They use a mixture of assets they made and pre-made ones from various online stores. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this process, as long as it isn’t being used to create a so-called “asset flip,” which is not the studio’s practice.

But developers have to put a lot of trust into these market places. They’re trusting that they are selling content they have the rights to and that those assets were not AI-generated.

This isn’t the first time this has been a problem. For example, in March 2023, the studio Archangel unknowingly purchased assets from the Epic Marketplace Store that was lifted from the game Elden Ring. The Epic Marketplace is widely considered to be one of the most reputable marketplaces for animations and other assets.

AI has added a new layer to that. Now it’s no longer enough for the assets to be original, they have to be human-created. As President Studio pointed out, it can be difficult to tell what assets are AI-generated and the tools for detecting AI content are imperfect.

But, even if one could avoid purchasing AI assets, perhaps by creating everything in-house, there’s still the issue of AI being inserted into the various tools used to create video games. The simple truth is that AI is being forced on nearly all creators in various ways, making it more of a challenge of avoiding it than simply not seeking it out.

AI has made itself all but unavoidable and that’s going to be a continuing struggle for all creatives, not just video game developers.

Bottom Line

President Studio did a great job by talking openly about how their games are made and their policy against using AI. It’s a move that others could and should take a lesson from.

Simply put, it’s not enough to avoid AI or not use AI, especially if you’re in a space that is very critical of AI. You need to be proactive, state your policy clearly, and, if you can’t guarantee that everything is AI-free, have a system for concerned users to contact you directly.

As this story proves, if people with AI concerns don’t have a means to reach out, they will take it to reviews and other public forums. There, even the suggestion can do a great deal of harm.

While this is obviously important for video game developers, the same applies for writers, artists, filmmakers, photographers, musicians, and more. Discussing your stance on AI, including how you do use it if you do, and being transparent about it broadly can help prevent issues like this one.

To be clear, I don’t think this is something people should have to do. The onus should be on those using AI in non-AI spaces to disclose their usage, not the other way around. But, as AI gets more difficult to avoid and to spot, this type of approach becomes more necessary. 

Being honest and proactive is really the only weapon that human creators have left.