As artificial intelligence spreads across game development, an era of AI-driven user-generated content (UGC) is taking shape, with users who were once mere consumers now taking part in development themselves. Original works that break from established design conventions are pouring out, and analysts say the distribution and revenue structures long controlled by game companies are also reaching a turning point.
South Korea's app market ONE store plans to expand the lineup of its dedicated AI game section, "AI Games," from 25 titles now to more than 50 by the end of this month, according to the game industry on the 13th. AI Games is a dedicated distribution space that ONE store built in partnership with the AI game creation platform Verse8. Its defining feature is that individual creators with no experience in planning, art or development can handle everything from production to distribution and monetization in one place.
When a user enters the game they want to make into the Verse8 platform as a sentence, an AI agent analyzes the prompt and handles everything at once, from writing code to generating characters, graphics, sound and rules. As a result, non-developers can create a game in the genre they want, such as an idle role-playing game (RPG) or a three-dimensional (3D) shooter, in one to two minutes. Games that pass review and enter AI Games can be run immediately by users without a separate installation.
"For individual creators, a channel has opened that lets them reach a large audience and generate revenue with games they made themselves," an ONE store official said. "We will gradually refine the revenue-sharing structure and creator support programs to keep discovering new games."
Krafton is upgrading Overdare, an AI-based UGC platform, through a joint venture with Naver Z. Aiming to be a "Korean Roblox," Overdare offers an environment where users can create games and avatar outfits themselves, built on a dedicated sandbox engine and AI agents. When a user enters natural-language commands, AI generates the results in real time, and users can check the work in progress and request revisions until they get the quality they want.
Overdare Studio, the core creation tool, was released early as a free early-access version on overseas markets including the Epic Games Store, and after phased testing it is scheduled to launch as a full global service within the year.
Nexon has transplanted an AI creation environment into MapleStory Worlds, a development platform based on its flagship intellectual property (IP), MapleStory. The recently introduced "MSW AI Toolkit" uses an AI agent trained on MapleStory Worlds development knowledge to help users build new worlds through "vibe coding," a natural-language command-driven approach.
The adoption of AI tools is also accelerating in areas that once required advanced technical skill, such as 3D graphics and sound effects. NC AI's "VARCO 3D" is a solution that automatically generates three-dimensional assets when text or an image is entered, dramatically cutting the specialists needed and the development period. NC AI is also preparing the full launch of "VARCO Sound," which extracts and generates background music and sound effects from text and video.
Com2uS is broadening its support beyond development into distribution and operations. It plans to launch its AI-based backend service "Hive Exil" during the third quarter, offering integrated authentication, payment and data analysis needed to run games, moving to seize the distribution ecosystem for the surging number of AI-made games.
Major game companies are staking everything on building user-centered AI creation environments because of the explosive growth of the UGC platform market. In the case of Roblox, a leading player, payouts to individual creators more than doubled from $624 million in 2022 to around $1.5 billion in 2025. Still, some point out that the ability to select high-quality games from the flood of content pouring out through AI tools will determine each platform's success or failure.
"Through the tool of AI, control of game development is shifting from a small number of studios to individual creators," an industry official said. "Going forward, the key will depend less on how many games are made than on how stably the content produced is delivered to and consumed by users."
