A recently released RPG, Shrine’s Legacy, was bombarded by negative Steam reviews accusing it of using AI. However, the indie developer is now fighting back, saying that players got it wrong. Does Valve’s gaming platform have a major AI witch hunt problem?
Indie RPG Review Bombed on Steam After Users Mistakenly Accuse It Of AI
Following its launch in October 2025, Shrine’s Legacy started to receive negative reviews on Steam accusing it of using generative AI. For example, one negative review wrote, “AI slop. The game is 100% AI generated.” However, the game’s developer, Positive Concept Games, has recently fought back on social media.
In a post on X, the indie studio claimed that reviews were falsely accusing them of AI and asked players to stop leaving negative reviews because of it. “Please don’t do this. We poured years of our lives into this game and only worked with real human artists on everything. From the writing to the coding, all work was done by human hands. We do not endorse generative AI and will never use it.”
At the time of the article, Shrine’s Legacy now has “overly positive” reviews on Steam. However, the incident has left some players asking whether Steam reviews have an “AI problem.” Specifically, there are concerns that users on the Valve platform are going on a witch hunt when it comes to AI and mistakenly review-bombing games that aren’t actually using it.
Are AI Witch Hunts Becoming a Serious Problem on Steam?
Following Positive Concept Games’ post, many players weighed in on the situation. For example, one user on X wrote, “99% of these commenters have no clue about what goes into these types of works. I don’t either, which is why I don’t criticize any game dev.” Another user wrote, “People have their own rights to review games with their personal opinions. However, calling the game AI slop is uncalled for. That’s misinformation.”
Despite the backlash over the AI accusations, some users actually demanded the developer provide proof that they made the game by hand. The developer went on to post pictures of their development code. Although many users on X defended the studio and said they shouldn’t have to prove anything to comments and reviews. Which is fair, since it’s not like those accusing them have provided evidence that they’ve actually used AI.
Should Steam Continue AI Labels For Games?
Interestingly, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney argued in November that Steam should drop its AI label system altogether. “The AI tag is relevant to art exhibits for authorship disclosure and to digital content licensing marketplaces where buyers need to understand the rights situation. It makes no sense for game stores, where AI will be involved in nearly all future production.”
Ultimately, the issue isn’t really players not wanting generative AI in their video games. That’s a valid position. However, players being quick to accuse a game of using AI, when they might not actually know if it does or not, seems like a pretty slippery slope.
No one wants to see an indie studio already struggling to make it have their game railroaded because it gets drowned in negative reviews over AI usage when they might not have even used it. Then again, maybe Valve’s Steam AI label system can be improved over time to cut out the speculation.
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