Link: https://thisweekinvideogames.com/news/saber-interactive-acknowledges-undisclosed-genai-use-in-rideshare-stimulator-denies-replacing-lead-writer-with-chatgpt/

From the Saber Interactive CEO:

“Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her. We have already said we are using AI for certain parts of the game and will update the Steam page once we have finalized the feature set.

“Let me clarify that the entire story script, were it to win an award, would go to someone who can walk up on stage and receive it. It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed this before we were ready.

“We look at our use of AI in this particular game, which will be a lower priced title, as a plus for consumers,” he said.

“As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later. From what I can gather she enjoys controversy even more than I do. I would frankly in retrospect have been happy to replace her with AI. At least we would be dealing with someone programmed to be honest.”

Those quotes are psychotic

What a sales pitch!

What an unpleasant shell of a man

Oh good, Saber interactive is already blocked on my steam recommendations

They need to work on their public relations. Maybe hire someone and listen as this is the opposite of damage limitation. It went from looking sketchy and dishonest. To sketchy, dishonest, rude, with fragile egos and just generally not nice people.

Wouldn't touch one of their products even if I wanted to.

It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed this before we were ready.

I imagine they'd only have been 'ready' after most sales would have occurred.

This deters me not only from buying this game, but also from buying anything from this company.

That's a good idea. I don't want to accidentally support this stupid.

Edit: Pic added

For anyone else who wants to do so:

Search for Saber Interactive, click gear icon, select "ignore from this publisher".

Rideshare “Stimulator” sounds like a softcore porn game

I cannot unsee this...

Is this the same company behind Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, or am I mistaking it for something else with "Saber" in the name?

If so,

If only AI Datacenters could use the goodwill their shitty users burn as fuel.

As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later. From what I can gather she enjoys controversy even more than I do.

It was the "bitches be crazy" defense that really made me decide to boycott this company.

Many CEOs are psychotic

arguably all of them. Many CEOs are smart enough not to say the insane thoughts in their head out loud

This comment isn't in jest. They're literally psychopaths.

Can someone make an importable blocklist?

I think this guy is being literally serious and not comically hyperbolic.

https://neurolaunch.com/psychopath-ceos/

Tech bros are the dumbest mofos on the planet, but somehow they keep getting work and money while adding negative value to the world.

I was not jesting.

Saber Interactive is listed as one of the developers of Halo CE: they're listed third after 343 Industries and Bungie, but honestly, you're already supporting Microslop when you buy any Halo game.

Users can burn Goodwill as fuel? That's handy. Maybe they'll stop exploiting the disabled and the grieving. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Make us proud, fellow users! Show us the way, teach us about Man's red flower!

Hell, even "Rideshare Simulator" sounds like a cutesy title for a smorgasbord of nsfw* smut in a candy shell. On brand for hentai, et al? ☝🏼

*results may vary by country

The fact that this splurt from his smooth brain states that he enjoys controversy, just like her, allegedly... just, oof.

His claim is more unsubstantiated noise at the same moment it's a personal admission of being a proud & loudmouthed scrote tick.

In one sentence, he's whined and pointed out someone else who "enjoys" being a tedious fuck —just like him. 🤦🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️

What a stupid prick.

The lesson here is older than civilization itself: "When someone shows you who they are, pay attention."

jaaaysus, that's a lot. 🤕🤢🤦🏼‍♂️

Seems like a good place for a friendly PSA:

Remember, fellow members of the exploited class, "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing." ✊🏼

I couldn't figure out how to do it on mobile.

But I did find out that Saber is the company that published Space Marine 2, which is a little disappointing as I was wanting to play that.

Godfuckingdammit. They're the ones making the Hellraiser game coming out in October and now I'm gonna have to miss out on principle.

This is fucking bullshit.

Saber developed CE Anniversary's renderer engine, which allowed you to switch graphics between old and new graphics.

I believe art was outsourced, but ultimately falls on 343 (changed their name to Halo Studios to trick customers into forgetting their horrendous reputation) because they had final approval.

Seems to be broken on steam in Android:

Works on the website though: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/SaberInteractive

No.... Dude what... I'm literally rewatching Hellraiser right now and re reading all the books to get ready for it.

I'm just gonna pirate it then. But that kills me because Jericho did so bad I was going to buy this on PC and it was going to be the last disc I ever bought for PS5.

Man... fuck.

If you've never spoken to her or seen her, then how do you know she was replaced by someone "more talented"

This dude is not only a psychopath, he's a complete idiot. Does the CEO just get to release a statement no matter what? I feel like anyone else who proofread this could have told him this was going to make him hated.

Thanks for having principles

A lot of CEOs are psychopaths. They are just ideal for the job and therefore concentrated in such work.

Yeah, even just going purely by just that response quote in this post is enough for me to detest that guy and want the company that chose him to lead to fail.

Though I do kinda wish that leaker had waited because it's easy to say "we were going to reveal it later" even if they had no intention of revealing anything. If this had come out at release, then that excuse wouldn't have been available (assuming my hunch that they weren't going to say shit was right).

Every accusation is a confession.

Turns out I have 3 of their games on my wishlist.

Roadcraft, recent reviews mixed, looks like that was from before this controversy as only one that I looked at mentioned it. Others mention things like the characters and story seeming like they were produced by AI. "The story is so generic and blandly written, I wonder if humans were involved or not." Others complain about the game being janky and lacking polish. Someone preordered the ultimate edition and was upset they paid $100 for it and it didn't include DLC (there's 5 paid DLCs, game was released in May '25).

Tempest Rising, though for this one they are only listed as a publisher. Reviews are mostly positive (though there's a negative one that mentions this).

Space Marines 2, this one is currently showing up as "Very Positive" but it looks like this might bring it down into the mixed area because there's a lot of negative reviews mentioning this, though. Oh it uses kernel anti-cheat so I guess I wasn't getting it anyways.

Pirate it.

Yeah, I support Imcrosoft

Ipirated Halo
M
Campaign Evolved and barely got through the
R
O
Second mission before throwing in the
O
F
Towel

Looks like I've got to do some research, the graphics switching mechanism is THE thing I can respect out of that game

I've struck the KOTOR remake off my wishlist, and I was thinking of buying Road Redemption and now absolutely will not. It's a shame, but I'm not giving them a cent.

It's just about being close to money, if your dad is rich as hell you can borrow a little from him and make business deals. For the rest of us, we just get less money because we have more degrees of separation from these massive piles of money. It's plutocracy, quite a far ways away from meritocracy.

Yeah it's disappointing people who say stupid braindead things become CEO of anything lol

Now I gotta check if I have any of those on my list.

The leaker was probably riding high on that anger energy, and for good reason.

The guy’s response is immature and makes it obvious he doesn’t care about quality or making something genuine. He’d rather have a conveyor belt of slopware games.

What's the story with KOTOR?

Hellraiser was a book series?

“We look at our use of AI in this particular game, which will be a lower priced title, as a plus for consumers,” he said.

Really? Do you think the consumers will feel the same way?