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Dev of Steam game 'Hardest' will delete it after new girlfriend made them realise AI is bad

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Last updated: 13 Jan 2026 at 4:54 pm UTC

Hardest is getting removed from Steam by the developer at the end of the month, as they say "AI is bad" and "AI is evil" - oh my. Never heard of it until it was pointed out on Mastodon to me.

In a Steam announcement the developer mentioned they made the game in a few Summer months using AI "because in university there is so much brainwashing on students and all the tools are given for free". Now they have "realized the AI is not actually free, and it has a major effect on the economy and environment." and that some AI companies "can use this game just existing as a reason the get more investment for their AI companies, that benefit no one, but rather suck resources from the economy from hard working people".

While they say they coded it the game used AI generated assets and that makes it "a disgrace to all game makers and players". The sticking point for the developer? They said the "girl I've been dating for a month made me realize this" and so it's getting deleted from Steam on January 30th.

A tiny game that had a Mixed rating on Steam from 33 overall reviews. I don't think anyone will miss it. Probably the first time this has ever happened though?

Realistically, we're still only in the infancy of seeing how generative AI is going to affect the gaming industry. More and more developers are using it. The bubble will burst eventually.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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8 comments Subscribe

Nezchan 7 hours ago
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The bit about brainwashing in universities is kind of a red flag, so it's no surprised he was gullible enough to buy the AI hype. Good that he's backing off on this at least, but I doubt I'd be interested in anything he makes going forward.
tfk 7 hours ago
Was this girlfriend an AI girlfriend by any chance? Maybe the algorithm told her to break up with him and that made him realize AI is not your friend?
ROllerozxa 5 hours ago
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That girlfriend, if she is real and was really the reason for doing this, seems to be a keeper for her strong marketing skills. Now this game has become a limited edition release everyone is talking about and can't wait to get before the end of the month, when it comes an exclusive collector's piece.
minidou 3 hours ago
this moral panic is getting ridiculous
doragasu 2 hours ago
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Awesome, now we need his girlfriend to talk to Activision about CoD7.
sarmad 17 minutes ago
While I agree there is a lot of immorality in AI, avoiding it just puts you at a disadvantage since everyone is using it. So, you'll be harming yourself, not the unethical AI companies. The solution to the ethical dilemma should come from politicians, but they are unfortunately too corrupt to do the right thing.
Caldathras 9 minutes ago
I'm a little surprised. He could have just taken it down temporarily with the explanation he provided and then ran a kickstarter to raise the funds to pay a human artist to replace the genAI artwork. Perhaps it is not worth the extra effort?

Kudos to that new girlfriend though!
LoudTechie 3 minutes ago
Quoting: sarmadWhile I agree there is a lot of immorality in AI, avoiding it just puts you at a disadvantage since everyone is using it. So, you'll be harming yourself, not the unethical AI companies. The solution to the ethical dilemma should come from politicians, but they are unfortunately too corrupt to do the right thing.
AI companies are currently operating by dotcom logic.
The more users you've, the more you'll be able to lock in in the future and thus the more valuable your shares.
Boycotts do work to influence that metric.

This same logic also applies to this "disadvantage". The goal is vendor lockin they will try to get you to rely on their products to the level that you can't ditch them and they've many great minds working on that goal.
You'll pay a hefty sum when the time of income finally arrives.
Right now you're at a disadvantage if you use AI, because they're buying your dependence with low prices.

Spoiler, click me

This also, why deepseek was such a shock.
It used a(known, but for good reasons avoided) cheaper method for training to achieve equal results and marketed it.
It presented the threat that someone without trillions in capital could compete with their champions.
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