Co-op game Party Animals has been spammed with hundreds of negative reviews after it announced a $15,000 AI video contest.
As detailed on the game’s official website, Recreate Games is running a competition, inviting short films, drama series, animations, music videos, and more on any theme as long as it’s “positive” and connected to the Party Animals game.
So far, so what, right? Well, it’s the next bit of the rules that’s caused a little commotion.
“[AI-generated content] must be the core creative tool, including but not limited to AI-generated images, video, music, voiceovers, 3D assets, etc.,” the competition insists. The winner secures a whopping $15,000, with cash awards of $1,500-4,500 also available for runner-ups.
While Party Animals maintains a “very positive” Steam user review rating for all English reviews, recent reviews are now “mostly negative” after over 800 negative reviews were left since the competition was announced. “Rest in peace, loved this game but they’re leaning into AI now so I will no longer support this company,” reads the “most helpful review,” posted by someone with over 26 hours on record.
“I genuinely wonder if any company ever takes even a single glance online, to see what the general consensus is around AI, before they do something like this,” commented one unhappy player.
Another more moderate take said: “I think the general consensus is not the same as a vocal minority. The general consensus still just views AI as a novelty with no strong feelings for or against it.” Another replied: “This is similar to the massive push of gambling in and around all sports things. They want to normalize it so more and more of their potential customer base doesn’t know a world where it wasn’t ubiquitous to some degree.” Someone else wrote: “We saw this exact same song and dance when NFTs were the hot new buzzword.”
Party Animals AI Video Contest is about to begin!
What wild ideas have you had for Party Animals? Join the “Golden Paw Awards” now — Party Animals 1st AI Video Contest!
A short film you’ve been dreaming of making, a story that breaks all the rules, a character tribute to your… pic.twitter.com/kWgY4zvQT0
— Party Animals (@party_animals) May 13, 2026
“The rules are pretty funny too,” pointed out another commenter. “‘Any plagiarism or unauthorized used of others’ work will result in disqualification. Like, do y’all know how generative AI even works…?”
Developer Recreate Games has yet to respond to the complaints.
The issue of generative AI’s impact on the creative industries remains one of the hottest topics in all entertainment, and some are all-in on the emerging tech. The CEO of Genvid — the company behind choose-your-own-adventure interactive series like Silent Hill Ascension — recently claimed “consumers generally do not care” about generative AI, and stated that: “Gen Z loves AI slop.” EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said AI is “the very core of our business,” and Square Enix recently implemented mass layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to be “aggressive in applying AI.” Dead Space creator Glen Schofield also recently detailed his plans to “fix” the industry in part via the use of generative AI in game development, and former God of War dev Meghan Morgan Juinio said: “… if we don’t embrace [AI], I think we’re selling ourselves short.”
Strauss Zelnick, boss of Rockstar parent company Take-Two, however, recently called the idea of AI making games like GTA 6 “laughable.” Reflecting on the reception to Google’s Project Genie, which can generate interactive worlds from a text prompt — the tech demo for which briefly sent game company share prices tumbling — Zelnick insisted: “These tools may help you create assets, but that won’t help you create hits.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
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