A roundup of recent news covering the use of AI in game development, Facepunch Studios' sustainable developer payment model, potential acquisitions, and various gaming industry newsletters.
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Try a single issue or save on a subscription'We don't have to fire 1000 people to keep it working': Facepunch Studios says paying s&box game developers is sustainable, with '$500,000 paid out to date'Google executive responsible for AI has a solution for the game industry's problems, and you're not going to believe this but it's AI'Players don’t realise that their favourite games right now were already built with AI', says Google exec making AI toolsYou know it's bad for AI when even Peter Molyneux, king of overpromising, is tepid on its use in game dev: 'I think we have to be very, very careful'A human software engineer rejected an AI agent's code change request, only for the AI agent to retaliate by publishing an 'angry' blog about himGarry Newman says companies have tried to buy Facepunch but the only reason to sell it would be for money 'and I feel like I've got enough money'Become a Member in SecondsContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsYour weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
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Today saw the release of s&box, the long-in-development successor to Garry's mod that's also open source and hopes to become a kind of Roblox for dads. There's no denying the potential of this toolkit, nor the commendably generous principles behind why it's been released in the way it has, but it does have one immediate issue. And it's 2026, so of course that issue is AI-generated slop.
S&box's Steam reviews are, at the time of writing, decidedly"mixed", with the vast majority of negative reviews referencing AI in some respect. I've just downloaded the game-slash-platform to have a look and, on the landing page where you can view what's on offer, a lot of the games being offered do look like they've been tossed together quickly using such tools, and have the negative ratings to match.
I also don't think I've ever come across a more intriguing game name, in both a good and bad way, than"Terry's Granny " Garry's Mod creator says programmers over-relying on AI is like using too much porn: 'You lose your ability to ejaculate using your imagination' 'You would not believe the number of AI games in our inbox' says Tunic's publisher 'I am tired of seeing it'Stiles:"At release there is like 90% AI generated slop which is silently accepted by Facepunch.
So you can expect that this platform will be full of AI-generated slop, and Facepunch gladly pays them for doing no work and committing theft.
" Babouche:"You will get more fun on transformice than this game full of 'AI slop' and money farm game like on roblox and fortnite. " SomeGhoosName:"It's an unoptimized mess with a 'game hub' filled with 'vibe coded' AI slop, not to mention that the developers themselves support AI in their official discord. " Archupump:"Filled with AI slop and low-effort gambling simulators. If that is something you are interested in, this is your place.
"Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors Mado:"Filled to the brim with low quality, asset flip, braindead AI slop which facepunch seems to blindly accept.
" I could go on, but you get the idea. Developer Facepunch admits they'll"have to deal with people using AI in obvious, low quality ways" though that's clearly a work-in-progress. The studio's founder Garry Newman acknowledges that s&box"isn't perfect" and says the goal from hereon-in is a weekly cadence of updates with close attention paid to player feedback..
"We don't encourage using AI to be creative. We don't encourage using AI to create games for you. But we do acknowledge that it's a good learning tool and it's a good productivity tool. We'll be taking action to promote human creativity and push obviously AI-created slop off the main page.
" Garry Newman says he originally expected Garry's Mod to make 'about $30,000' as a 'best case scenario' You know it's bad for AI when even Peter Molyneux, king of overpromising, is tepid on its use in game dev: 'I think we have to be very, very careful' Google executive responsible for AI has a solution for the game industry's problems, and you're not going to believe this but it's AI PC Gamer's Chris Livingston sat down with Newman recently at GDC, and the issues of moderation and AI came up. Do bear in mind that Newman was talking shortly before s&box was released into the wild.
"You expect the community to flag it up, basically, with a lot of these systems that don't exist yet, because we're not released yet," said Newman. "My general thing with moderation is you want something to moderate before you create a system to moderate it.
So we want people to break the rules, and then we'll notice, and then we'll create a system, and you can apply that retroactively, and you can find the right system for it then: which might be AI, it might be manual review. There's a lot of options nowadays.
" As for Facepunch's general stance on AI, Newman said it's a no-brainer that people are going to use it and praises the technology in some respects, while acknowledging the 'slop' problem. "I don't mind AI that much, because it makes my job so much easier, but I know a lot of artists are more sensitive over AI," said Newman. "I think programmers are over it now. They've seen how useful it is, how more efficient it makes them.
My thoughts on AI with programming are basically the same as porn.
". "Yeah I think you need to kind of split it 50/50: you need to use your imagination sometimes to be able to do that. I think it's the same with coding. If you count on AI to always do it, then you're going to lose the ability to think critically and do .
But I think I've learned more from AI than I've outsourced to it, it's taught me techniques and new things that are way better than anything I've ever come up with on the web or search.
" As for whether Facepunch has a codified policy on AI, Newman said the studio uses it in"early pre-production stuff" but he's sensitive as to why artists will feel very differently to coders about it. "My policy on AI in s&box is I think eventually the slop will just fall to the bottom," said Newman.
"Nobody will be interested, because they'll see , but also it's evolving that fast we can't really ignore it, and we can't say don't use AI, because we use AI in our coding all the time. It's useful, it's fast. But for art it's kind of a hot topic, for our artists it's a really hot topic. And I can see the point when it's been trained on their work.
" Newman says the use of AI at Facepunch on the artistic side is more of"a replacement for Google Images" than anything which will find its way into the final product, and sees s&box following a similar trajectory to gmod. "In Garry's Mod we didn't approach it with a plan in mind to make it better, but we knew that while we were making it we'd naturally spot the mistakes that we made," laughs Newman.
"Well thatmade in Garry's mod, and fix them along the way. And that's kind of what we've been doing .
" Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer.
He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as" must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike.
"Garry's Mod creator says programmers over-relying on AI is like using too much porn: 'You lose your ability to ejaculate using your imagination''You would not believe the number of AI games in our inbox' says Tunic's publisher 'I am tired of seeing it'You know it's bad for AI when even Peter Molyneux, king of overpromising, is tepid on its use in game dev: 'I think we have to be very, very careful'Google executive responsible for AI has a solution for the game industry's problems, and you're not going to believe this but it's AI'Wow, that was quick': Resident Evil Requiem devs thought it would take 2 weeks to crack the Final Puzzle, but players did it in 4 daysThe Blood of Dawnwalker lets you complete areas in any order, kill any NPCs you like, and still complete the game after failing every quest: 'We're giving even more freedom to players'Only 40% of players switched to third person during Grace's parts in Resident Evil Requiem: 'There are clear differences in this data depending on the platform and region'After visiting the studio I'm more excited for The Blood of Dawnwalker than ever, so it's a relief to find out I'll only need to wait until September 3 to play it'Wow, that was quick': Resident Evil Requiem devs thought it would take 2 weeks to crack the Final Puzzle, but players did it in 4 daysOnly 40% of players switched to third person during Grace's parts in Resident Evil Requiem: 'There are clear differences in this data depending on the platform and region'After visiting the studio I'm more excited for The Blood of Dawnwalker than ever, so it's a relief to find out I'll only need to wait until September 3 to play itMicrosoft announces Shader Model 6.10 preview, bringing neural rendering into the mainstream and just maybe making the games industry a bit less reliant on Nvidia'We've never met a cult we didn't want to be a part of, so we're getting in on the ground floor': Dbrand announces skins for the new Steam Controller in the most Dbrand way The best fish tank PC case in 2026: I've tested heaps of stylish chassis but only a few have earned my recommendation Best gaming laptop 2026: I've tested the best laptops for gaming of this generation and here are the ones I recommend
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