Talk about not reading the room right? Party Animals developers Recreate Games recently announced an AI video contest and it went down like a lead balloon.
With all the well reported issues and concerns surrounding AI / Generative AI, you would think it would be an absolute given that announcing an AI contest would be a thoroughly idiotic idea - but apparently not. Someone genuinely thought this was a good enough idea to put online.
In a post on X/Twitter, the official Party Animals account invited people to win a share of $75,000 to "bring your ideas to life with AI".
How did it go? Well, it's now on Mostly Negative for recent user reviews on Steam with 828 negative reviews flowing in since the announcement:
As a result, the developer has somewhat attempted to backtrack on it. Sort of. Well, they're now asking for opinions on what they should do, which includes keeping the AI category:
If I could face-palm any harder I might hurt myself. How do you read the room that badly? And still don't firmly backtrack on it and cancel it. Sometimes the tech and gaming communities end up in a bubble, but you have to be living under the heaviest rock imaginable not to understand there's a lot of negativity flowing towards Generative AI.
SnooPets1826 on May 15th, 2026 at 20:41 UTC »
It's good to send a message... But who's even thought about this game in years? This stunt has netted them so much attention.
imdefinitelywong on May 15th, 2026 at 03:36 UTC »
https://giphy.com/gifs/clotJg9IqBitMcRJ61
bsmithi on May 14th, 2026 at 23:45 UTC »
who could’ve seen that coming lol