Prevent AI-stolen game art: licensed artist marketplace + provenance API

Game developers and independent studios are increasingly exposed to reputational and legal risk from using unvetted AI-generated imagery or unlabeled third-party art; with roughly 180,000 game studios worldwide and many small teams lacking in-house art capability, the dilemma is real and the consequence can be platform takedowns or costly litigation. Studios report an elevated reluctance to use uncertain assets, and freelance artists complain about undercompensation and misattribution, creating market friction on both sides. The product would be a licensed artist marketplace tailored to games plus a provenance API that attaches standardized metadata and cryptographic signatures to every asset and license, enabling stores and engine vendors to validate origin and licensing programmatically. Core features would include curated artist onboarding, explicit license templates, automated royalty tracking, reverse-image provenance checks, and an API for storefront/engine integration so studios can ingest only verified assets. This is an attractive moment: platform holders are tightening policy around AI-sourced content, indie game counts and outsourcing are growing, and the addressable market is roughly $3.6 billion if 180,000 studios spend an average $20,000 annually on art and asset licensing. The convergence of regulatory pressure and buyer willingness to pay for verifiable, risk-free assets gives a clear demand signal now. To stand out the business needs game-specific vetting, tight platform partnerships for accepted provenance standards, and a transparent artist compensation model that can scale; offering limited indemnity or escrowed warranties could be a competitive advantage. The main challenges are building multi-sided network effects—onboarding trustworthy artists and persuading platform holders to accept your provenance—and managing the verification costs and potential legal gray areas around what constitutes original vs. AI-derived work.