Overview
- Recreate Games announced the Golden Paw Awards, a Party Animals video contest that required generative AI tools and offered $75,000 in prizes including a $15,000 grand prize.
- Players flooded Steam with negative reviews that flipped the game's recent rating to Mostly Negative.
- The studio apologized on social media, saying the AI rule was meant to lower the barrier for fans who lack editing, modeling, or animation skills.
- Recreate then posted a community poll on the contest's fate, and early results showed an overwhelming preference to cancel it.
- The backlash reflects wider fears that required AI tools devalue human-made work and could shift prize money and attention away from traditional creators.