Takashi Mochibe, an indie developer was threatened over his strategy game Dragon's Chronicles: Twin Stars of Reginleiv. The extortion attempt was by email and for $200 worth of items on Steam. The message claimed to have developed an AI generated clone of the game already.
Developer Takashi Mochibe dismisses AI clone extortion threat as likely spam after missing proof video
It's threat was to have the clone uploaded to Steam in the next 24 hours. It's a rising security issue that indie game studios might be experiencing extortion attempts on digital distribution platforms.
The Studio Athome, the developer behind the game, was the one under threat. It was clear that there was sufficient material to put the copy before the original. No discussions were to be held, according to the extortionist.
The threat was met head-on by Mochibe. The extortionist's assertion about how good a clone would be was called into question.
To the threat, Mochibe answered that he would pay $200 for the AI generated game if it was more fun than his own strategy game. As well, the proof video the email said would be included wasn't. Because there was no evidence to go on, he's thinking it's some mass spam campaign and not a specific threat to him.
Other developers have seen the $200 Steam items threat including Weasel Pit with Iron Pilgrim and Psicodart Games with Circusar. As both Automaton and Mochibe view these as likely bluffs or spam. Because there's no tangible proof.
Steam has AI Generated Content Disclosure tag for generative AI games. What Steam's stance is on imitative AI clones isn't clear.
Source: TweakTown
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