I am against AI-generated content and won’t buy it. I’d prefer it be removed from the store entirely.
I’m glad there’s a filter to hide it in searches.
It’d be even better if there was some sort of account config I could set that would just block all AI-generated content from showing up for me.
Assuming he started by November, that’s over 220 assets a day which is wild to think about.
First of all, thanks for the answer about AI-generated content spam.
But I will continue to propose this simple thing that would help a lot:
If someone wants to view AI-generated assets, they should click the button — not the other way around.
Also other things that might help a lot:
Every AI-generated creation on the store should be automatically excluded from discounts, showcase events, promotions, and anything that could give it extra visibility
Put a nice big and identifying marker of an AI-generated product in the thumbnails, so that it is very clear for customers.
Ideally, there should be a separate ‘FAB AI Store’, a sub-store distinct from the main one, maybe more cheap and “friendly license” (actualy i dont know how FAB license work for ia content) but I think that’s probably impossible to implement.
Last thing, maybe a little too much, is to put all the content generated by AI under a single tag “AI Generated”, without subcategories (Characters, Env… etc).
Maybe making a search uncomfortable is anti-consumer but also useful to discourage such massive proliferation.
As a creator of mainly horror content, I have almost everything flagged as Mature and blurred in the store since it is a flag set by default;
Making them practically ghost assets and not eligible for showcases or similar.
I do not understand penalizing creators like me (who make original content and trendy among game developers) compared to those who make AI content (not original and garbage).
I hope this criticism was constructive and not destructive, I love FAB & Epic Games, and i think if we criticize so much us content creators it’s because we care!
Thanks and good work! 
I’m not a lawyer, but that content is probably not really subject to Fab license as AI Generated content is not subject to copyright laws (as there is little or no human involved in creation process).
Sure they can, but will they? Their entire financial strategy revolves around producing as many listings as possible and betting that some of them will sell.
This business model only works when it costs next to nothing to create and list a product. Any fee will reduce the amount of trash listings. Even a fee of $1 would have likely reduced that guys 41k listings down to a couple hundred, while a fee of $10 would have likely stopped him from even considering this strategy at all.
It seems like a lot of the emphasis here is being placed on tagging/filtering/banning AI, which is not my primary concern.
My primary concern is simply being able to use the store without having to wade through an ocean of garbage and the fact that AI is generating most of the garbage is an incidental detail. It’s a symptom, the system is vulnerable and the only reason AI is being used is because it happens to be the most effective way to exploit that vulnerability at the present moment.
A solution that revolves around making rules is only as good as your ability to enforce them, and enforcement requires resources. Platforms like Reddit and Discord rely on a small army of community volunteers who work for free to keep their small niches of the sites clean. Epic doesn’t have that luxury.
The fact that a single user alone can submit so many entries and not be flagged for spam, ignoring the AI aspect of this is mind boggling.
Epic in the past mentioned that the old UEM was not breaking even but constantly made promises to creators for improvements over the past decade.
We’re now at a point where literal stolen content is freely shared on Fab from other peoples asset packs to ripped content from games.
I see plenty of people here laying out platitudes but this situation should never have occurred in the first place, the reputation of Fab is in tatters in all the communities I’m in.
If Epic needed that extra money why not adopt a similar scheme as with other app stores and your own where you pay an upfront small fee for a listing, situations like 44k listings in 6 months would never happen if the fee was even as low as $15 because that would amount to half a million dollars.
A decent seller would write off such a small fee because they would rightly be focusing on making their content worthy of the purchase but it would actively limit these kinds of situations where the sellers business is volume not quantity.
Epic used to mean Epic Quality, now it feels like we’re edging towards Epic Volume at the expense of quality.
Very well said. I’m interested in seeing whether they listen to the community at all, FAB is probably a fraction of their revenue stream. And it does seem like all their words about supporting creators are just hollow words.
I understand. Theres a setting for that.
And if the content is taggen as ai then you wont see it.
And if someone breaks that rule they get banned. Which is a far more intense deterrent than paying 1$.
From my pov, as a seller of free assets, even 1$ can be prohibitive. Some people in latam cant get an international credit card, so they cant sell at all.
Like someone else said above, its unfair that legit sellers have to be punished. 1$ fee for everyone is punishment to all. And not fair. I do think we can solve it in other way.
Besides “1$ will stop them” we dont know, thats only speculation.
I am using arbitrary numbers to illustrate the point, luckily Epic doesn’t actually have to guess what an appropriate fee would be: They let this guy run wild for months so they know exactly how much revenue he generated, and they know how much of a fee they would need to introduce in order to ensure that this behavior would be unprofitable.
This is also not “speculation”. Internalizing costs of negative externalities is basic economic practice, it’s extensively studied and known to work.
What we don’t know, is if Epic can actually effectively police content. They haven’t managed to do it so far… and I take no comfort in being told “well it’s a difficult task”
Clearly the store is broken. They should start with things like those before adding a fee.
“Discord has mods and epic cant have that luxury”
Why not? Why not having the ability to report users?
“We dont know if epic can police content”
Well imho the fee wont help at all then. People can still pay and keep posting crap or stolen assets as long as they make a cut.
If you cant enforce a policy you have to close your business..
And a rule of economics is that all costs are paid by the end consumer.
So if you put a 15$ fee, guess who pays for it? You. For every asset you buy.
Just like with the tariffs. Im not from usa, im from latam. And the problem with taxes incresing prices is well known there.
I dont wanna pay extra 15$ for each asset. Not even 1$ extra.
THANK YOU EPIC GAMES! <3
Digital assets are not physical goods and are not individually priced relative to their production cost, this is why it does not cost you 200 million dollars (or whatever the number is) to play Fortnite and for the last 20~ years every AAA game has been $60 regardless of how much it actually cost to make it.
To summarize my point as best I can:
A fee is a preventative tool
Moderation is a reactive tool
You need both. Having effective preventative tools means that the moderation team can focus their efforts on issues that are not easily prevented such as cases of stolen content and fraud, rather than being bogged down by trying to manage spam and mislabeled content. Yes, a fee is a cost. Moderation also has costs. Nothing is free. But some tools are more cost effective and scalable than others.
We could continue to go back and forth but I’ve said my piece, perhaps I don’t know what I’m talking about and others know better. I don’t know, but I don’t have anything else to add so it’s best I stop here.
We are not talking about a multi billion dollar company here, but some guy in his basement. Digital or not, if there is any extra fee in the product the cost WILL be repassed to the end consumer, that’s economics 101. What’s next? Asking for a fee to access the marketplace at all?
That is not the full case here though. If there is a fee to sell stuff here while on other places stays free, people will just go sell over there. We buy things here because is convenient, not because we are loyal to the brand. Someone who is relevant enough in the community will open a market and swallow the void created by this single, elitist, dumb decision.
Just remove the AI. It’s a simple thing to do.
Why do you want to keep AI-generated content? What’s your goal?
Anyone who wants AI slop can just go to an AI website and generate it themselves.
Allowing AI here hurts us—and your own server.
Do you even check the data? You know a lot of 3D content is stolen from us.
Some AI results are clearly similar because they’re based on stolen work.
Sites like Cubebrush have started removing AI content, and yet you’re doing the opposite. That’s a shame.
I’m totally giving up.
What’s the point of uploading my models when there are hundreds of AI users dumping garbage into this store?
Thanks Epic..
I love analyzing the human condition. The reason people(artists) don’t want AI content on Fab and pretty much anywhere else is an understandable attempt at self-preservation and trying to delay the inevitable. Your entire world has seemed to come crashing down, you don’t have other skills besides art and so you feel like your livelihoods are being obsoleted before your very eyes, which is very human, but I notice a lot of “for the sake of artists” arguments, no, you mean for yourself. Majority of people don’t speak out about anything until it affects themselves.
The faster you accept that AI is coming, the happier you’ll be in life. Most of you here do art because there isn’t much you can do, and I see the fear of obsolescence that comes with this. AI comes for everyone in pretty much every field, not just artists but I don’t see them whining about it. Or maybe it’s because art is considered “subjective,” making artists feel their work deserves special protection. If that’s the case, then AI-generated art is just as subjectively valid. Instead of fighting it, embrace it and take advantage of it. Your life is short, and more than likely, most here are struggling financially in life so instead of wasting your time on a forum complaining about something that won’t change, I honestly suggest using the thing you hate(AI), and try to make money with it as well, so you can give your family a good life, which is what matters most in life in the end.
that’s a good point. but i think that in the bottom line still apply.
if you put X$ into it, you want to get the same amount back, and in an amount that is sustainable.
that means you have to take into account how many units you sell in a period.
so if you make 1 asset per month, you need to make sure to get that money back in one month.
i’m treating the time you invest as money, because it’s simpler that way.
you still have a market cap of how many assets you sell per month.
so even though you could theoretically sell infinite amounts, well, that’s not what happens.
otherwise game companies won’t go bankrupt because they couldn’t get the money back. and i think that happens more often than i’d wish.
so any extra cost is shifted to the asset itself.
if that weren’t the case, then big companies could not argue that piracy is making them loose money (which is a contentious topic in itself but i’m just using as example).
some people consider even unfair that you get charged 30$ for a 3d mesh, since it takes no effort to copy on the disk. but some of us see that as unfair.
i’ve studied a bit of economics, and what drives the price of something is a bit complex. i’m not an expert, but i’m quite certain cost has to do with it. at least you need to recuperate cost.
even on digital goods and services.
some of those factors are value (not the same as price and it’s a somewhat subjective appreciation by the market), demand, offer, and cost. and there are many types of costs.
it’s also a great point that for big companies a one time fee of 10$ when you sell , dunno 10000$ a month is relatively small; but for a small developer in argentina that sells, dunno, 50$ when he’s just starting, it means something different.
well, that’s a point of view. nintendo for example does not agree, and decided to charge 80$ for mario kart world despite many people getting upset. and their response was “it’s a big game, it costs us many moneys to do”.
it’s ok, i’m not trying to convince you or anyone.
neither you nor i have the power to make the choice on what’s to be done. if anything gets done.
i just want to state my point of view and why it’s really important for me.
i just keep commenting because i felt there was something i haven’t said that might be good to have on the table.
it’s good that people communicate their pov, so that all the factors are visible for the people who makes a decision. or so i think.
now, on the topic of ai, which is the main point of the thread.
i’ve already said i’m not interested in it, but i’m not strictly opposed to it (though i don’t see it’s good for the store)
just want to share my pov. given that ai is very grey in terms of copyright and it haven’t been really addressed internationally. i’d say epic is creating the chance of getting into trouble and being sued.
they might be creating a bomb with this.
at any rate, if epic can not regulate the products they are offering, they are in legal trouble afaik. i mean enforcing a policy and moderating the quality and copyright of them. they might be somewhat responsible for what they provide. i’m not a lawyer but i imagine that’d be the case.
You wouldn’t be paying $15 extra for each asset just as most games on Steam don’t cost that initial $100 fee per game on top of the price.
As an environment artist who transitioned from the Epic Marketplace to Fab—not among the top-tier creators, but a dedicated one—I’d like to share my thoughts.
Creating an environment asset pack is never a quick task. From concept to collecting references, building the assets, learning new tools and techniques along the way, and constantly updating versions—it usually takes months of hard work, often more. It’s hard to imagine someone using AI to mass-produce tens of thousands of assets, overwhelming the platform and discouraging those who are truly passionate about design.
While AI is undoubtedly reshaping the design landscape and raising difficult challenges, I still believe in the value of genuine creativity. I hope real creators can continue to persevere, and that the community will support those who are truly building, not just using AI to flood the system and profit while undermining the work of others.
Let’s keep supporting quality and originality.
As an environment artist who transitioned from the Epic Marketplace to Fab—not among the top-tier creators, but a dedicated one—I’d like to share my thoughts.
Creating an environment asset pack is never a quick task. From concept to collecting references, building the assets, learning new tools and techniques along the way, and constantly updating versions—it usually takes months of hard work, often more. It’s hard to imagine someone using AI to mass-produce tens of thousands of assets, overwhelming the platform and discouraging those who are truly passionate about design.
While AI is undoubtedly reshaping the design landscape and raising difficult challenges, I still believe in the value of genuine creativity. I hope real creators can continue to persevere, and that the community will support those who are truly building, not just using AI to flood the system and profit while undermining the work of others.
Let’s keep supporting quality and originality.
Would be great to argue against AI without using LLM, lol
