A study suggests that when a game is revealed to use artificial intelligence, the effect can also be seen in reviews on Valve’s digital platform.

Since the arrival of generative artificial intelligence and modern chatbots, there has been an endless debate over whether using them in game development is ethical. But how does AI perform from a purely practical business perspective? According to a post by market-data analyst Ross Burton on the Game Oracle blog, the technology’s negative reputation may drive potential players away. Game Oracle sampled 9,879 games released between January and October 2025, filtering out spam, purely commercial releases, and free-to-play games. That may exclude some relatively popular free-to-play titles, as well as games accused of using AI-generated graphics without disclosing it. FragPunk falls into both categories. Of the titles included in the sample, 17.9% disclosed information about their use of AI.

Overall, the use of AI was associated with a slightly less enthusiastic reception. Games that did not disclose AI use received somewhat more reviews, fewer of them received no reviews at all, and when focusing on games with at least 100 reviews, the median rating was around 4% higher. When the methodology was adjusted specifically to compare games that were otherwise similar, however, the picture changed. The effect became more pronounced the larger and more established the developer was.

“After controlling for publisher, developer experience, and game type, developers using AI received around 53% fewer reviews than those who did not. To explain the observed disadvantage, an unmeasured X-factor would need to be strong enough to nearly triple, or increase 2.7-fold, the odds of AI adoption while simultaneously reducing review counts by 22%, independently of publisher support and developer experience. Our data suggests that AI makes no difference for low-quality games. For high-potential games, however, the AI stigma is real and severely punishes developers who would otherwise have succeeded” – the study states.

According to Game Oracle, games that used AI extensively and still became huge successes, such as The Finals, highlight the subtleties of AI use. AI can be used well, but it can also be used carelessly, and that matters. The study concludes that AI is not a tool to be ignored, but one that needs to be approached carefully. Would we avoid using a hammer while building a shed? No. We just should not walk around hitting everything with it.

Source: PC Gamer, Game Oracle