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Facepunch Demotes AI-Generated Thumbnails in S&box to Clean Up Discovery

The shift aims to steer attention toward human-made projects following a rocky Steam debut.

Overview

  • In its latest update, S&box gave moderators a tool to tag AI-made thumbnails, which pushes those packages down in lists and search results.
  • A warning now appears on the thumbnail creation page to discourage AI art that makes many uploads look the same.
  • Studio head Garry Newman said Steam reviews have been tough, with about 24% complaining about AI content, 20% citing performance issues, 35% comparing it to Garry's Mod, and 12% raising unfounded NFT concerns.
  • Facepunch added practical fixes alongside moderation, including three image upscalers for weaker GPUs or high-res screens, an update to the Box3D physics engine, and new review tag filtering.
  • Newman said S&box will not ban AI tools outright because it is a user-generated platform, but the team aims to remove obvious trolling and stop low-effort work from rising to the top.