A popular game held an 'AI video contest,' but was bombarded with negative reviews and subsequently issued an apology.



Party Animals , a party action game featuring cute animals engaging in chaotic battles, was popular on Steam, garnering over 17,000 top ratings. However, when developer Recreate Games announced a contest for AI-generated videos based on Party Animals characters, they received a lot of backlash. Recreate Games apologized and solicited user opinions regarding the contest.




Party Animals gets review bombed after devs announce AI video contest
https://www.polygon.com/party-animals-ai-video-contest-review-bombing/

'Party Animals' is a party game where you control fluffy creatures like dogs and rabbits to fight, knock each other off the field, and race. It has gained popularity for its contrasting gritty fighting style with its cute appearance and surreal controls that make it easy to move the characters around, and it has received positive reviews from 81% of over 50,000 users.



Recreate Games, the developer of 'Party Animals,' announced the holding of its '1st AI Video Contest' on May 13, 2026. The contest explicitly stated that entries must be made using AI tools, and intended to bring to life ideas such as short films using 'Party Animals' characters or animals that have not yet appeared in the game, through AI-generated movies. The contest will run from May 14 to August 31, 2026, and it was announced that a total of $75,000 (approximately 11.9 million yen) in prize money will be paid to the best entries.




However, the announcement post for the '1st AI Video Contest' attracted a lot of criticism, with comments such as, 'If they have the funds to give away $75,000, they should distribute it to the artists who created the game, not to someone who uses the generating AI,' as well as comments like, 'I will never buy it again,' and 'I uninstalled it from my library.'

The criticism has spread to Steam reviews, with negative comments such as, 'I loved this game, but I'm no longer supporting it because it's become too focused on AI,' and 'It's a shame that a good party game has fallen so low as to replace assets and community contests with AI garbage.'

The following shows the trend of positive and negative customer reviews as seen on the Steam product page. 'Party Animals' received many positive reviews from the time of its release, and from April 2026 onwards, there were around 10-20 positive reviews and fewer than 5 negative reviews per day. However, from May 13, 2026, when Recreate Games announced the first AI Video Contest, the number of negative reviews surged to over 500 per day. Note that Steam has determined that the negative reviews during this period are 'reviews that are thought to have little to do with product satisfaction' and have excluded them from the overall review score.



In response to this criticism, Recreate Games posted an apology on May 14, 2026, the following day, stating, 'First and foremost, we are sorry for disappointing our players with the announcement of the AI video contest. We also apologize for not being able to communicate with you sufficiently before the event began.' Recreate Games explained the intention behind the AI video contest, saying, 'We have seen cases where players with great ideas and scripts are unable to express themselves because they are not familiar with editing and modeling tools, so we hoped that AI would make it easier to express ourselves. We understand the concerns surrounding AI content. AI is just a tool, and we value the ideas, the expression, and the finished work itself.'

Following this, Recreate Games asked users which of the following would be preferable for the contest: 'cancel the AI video contest,' 'change it to a non-AI creative contest,' or 'maintain the AI category and add a separate manual category.'

As a result of gathering opinions using X's voting function, 15,701 votes were cast, and the majority (57.3%) chose 'Cancel the AI video contest.'




While some posts soliciting votes still receive critical replies such as, 'It looks bad to conduct a survey instead of withdrawing the announcement after receiving so much backlash,' and 'Once trust is lost, it can't be regained,' others offer opinions like, 'Most of the people who criticized the AI video contest and posted low ratings on Steam aren't even game users.'

Voting for the AI video contest ended on May 16, 2026, but as of the time of writing, Recreate Games has not announced any actions taken based on the votes or any further updates regarding the AI video contest.

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in AI,   Game, Posted by log1e_dh