Source: Aftermath
Valve's hands-off approach to Steam curation has created a vacuum where developers now spend resources fighting AI-generated knockoffs rather than building new work. A small indie studio can't afford the legal infrastructure that Ubisoft or EA can. Steam is effectively outsourcing platform stewardship to whoever has the deepest pockets, not to creators with the best ideas. The burden of quality control has shifted from the platform to individual studios with unequal resources.