{
  "id": 2925996,
  "title": "Steam Week in Review: A touch of AI is all it takes to trigger backlash, as a promising new indie falls afoul of slop skeptics",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/steam-week-in-review-a-touch-of-ai-is-all-it-takes-to-trigger",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-08-24T02:56:27.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PC Gamer",
    "slug": "pc-gamer",
    "url": "https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/steam-week-in-review-a-touch-of-ai-is-all-it-takes-to-trigger-backlash-as-a-promising-new-indie-falls-afoul-of-slop-skeptics/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Vapor World: Over The Mind, an indie Soulslike Metroidvania, experienced a backlash upon its early access launch on August 19. The game, developed by Korean studio Alive In, garnered 100,000 wishlists ahead of its launch and was praised for its evocative art style and narrative platforming similar to Lies of Pi and Playdead's works. However, the main complaint was the use of very obvious AI in the game's generative AI cutscenes. The studio's director, Young Kim, had initially believed AI would help them create a distinctive art style, but the outcome was disappointing, with only 64 reviews currently on Steam, 64 of which were negative. Alive In, with a team of about five developers, was caught off guard by the backlash. Despite the negative reception, the studio insists they are not dumping AI, instead promising to replace the AI-generated cutscenes by the weekend. This incident highlights the sensitivity of AI use in creative work, with South Korea, the least skeptical nation surveyed, still placing AI use in the middle ground compared to other countries.",
  "summary": "All the interesting Steam facts for the week ending August 23",
  "key_points": [
    "Indie Soulslike Metroidvania Over The Mind triggers backlash due to AI cutscenes.",
    "Korean studio Alive In caught off guard by negative reception and backlash.",
    "Studio promises to replace AI-generated cutscenes by the weekend."
  ],
  "editors_take": "The backlash against Vapor World: Over The Mind shows that even in a relatively AI-accepting market like South Korea, gamers draw a line when AI use is obvious and unimpressive in creative work.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}