Digital Solar – the indie studio behind moreish roguelike Moonlighter and moody RTS Cataclismo – has delayed a deliberate Steam playtest for its subsequent recreation, ReVamp, citing issues over “video games being reverse-engineered, cloned and printed earlier than the unique is even out.”
The developer was planning to let people into its vampiric “Tower Defensevania” ReVamp close to the tip of this spooky month, however a brand new development of gen-AI copycats cloning each outdated and unreleased video games left the studio anxious.
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“So a lot of you signed up for ReVamp’s first playtest right here on Steam (thanks!), however we have determined to start out with one thing extra contained on our Discord, with the general public playtest coming a bit later,” the developer wrote in a current Steam weblog publish.
Digital Solar pointed the finger at “information of video games being reverse-engineered, cloned and printed earlier than the unique is even out,” and anxious that “sharing a construct with tens of hundreds of gamers” months previous to its full launch is “too large a threat.”
From right here, Digital Solar will grant entry to ReVamp’s first playtest in waves ranging from the twenty ninth of October, by way of Discord. “Even when you aren’t getting in immediately, we would love so that you can be a part of the dialog round ReVamp as we let extra gamers in. We hope to open the general public playtest round January. To everybody who requested entry right here on Steam: we’re sorry for the change of plans, and thanks on your endurance,” the studio added.
ReVamp launches in full on twenty fifth March, 2027. This is hoping the transfer can efficiently shoo away any would-be clones.
Digital Solar is not the one developer having to work across the gen-AI increase. Xbox just lately introduced a whole division that sounds prefer it’s centered on gen-AI game-making, as only one instance.
In the meantime, Alliance Arts outright cancelled a Steam Subsequent Fest demo for its anime-inspired Russian Roulette recreation, Drunken Goddess Reflux, due to related points. “We’re involved that, primarily based on the content material of the demo, works imitating or replicating this recreation’s presentation and gameplay might be rapidly produced utilizing AI or different instruments and launched forward of the sport’s launch,” the corporate mentioned final week.
Steam Subsequent Fest 2026 needs to be a fantastic event to find new and thrilling video games that have been beforehand nowhere close to your radar. Nonetheless, as we reported earlier at this time, the shadow of generative AI looms over the complete occasion and will dampen an in any other case nice Steam custom.