The saga between former Saber Interactive writer Stella Sacco and Saber CEO Matt Karch reaches day three with hardly any progress as Sacco maintains she was fired and replaced with AI, and Karch summons all the antagonism in the galaxy to say she's mistaken. Only one aspect of the spat between them has been resolved: Saber finally added an AI disclosure label to upcoming driving sim Rideshare "Stimulator" on Steam.
Sacco initially wrote in an August 11 Bluesky post about the game, "I was lead writer on this one! And Saber replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development. All the passenger voices were AI too. Either they changed direction at some point or they're not disclosing it on Steam." Karch then hit back on August 13 to say "it was always [Saber's] intention to reveal" its AI usage, and that Sacco was actually "terminated for a variety of reasons," though "I would frankly in retrospect have been happy to replace her with AI." Right. Well, though Karch suggested Saber would only update the Rideshare "Stimulator" Steam page with an AI disclosure "once it's finalized," the developer apparently had a change of heart.
Now, the bottom of the Rideshare "Stimulator" Steam page explains, "The main Campaign story, characters, and dialogue are written by a team of human writers. AI tools are used for voice generation and some localization.
"The optional Free Ride mode includes AI-generated passenger missions and localized dialogue. Free Ride mode is separate from the main Campaign and can be skipped by players who prefer to experience only human-written narrative content."
This broadly lines up with statements from both Karch and a Saber representative, who told GamesRadar+ earlier this week, "Rideshare's story was written entirely by real people. The game will also feature an experimental, free-ride mode that by necessity incorporates AI as the number of passengers in the game is infinite."
But this new Rideshare "Stimulator" Steam disclosure also reveals "a mix of radio stations featuring human-made music and AI-generated music. Stations containing AI-generated music are clearly labeled as such in the game." So my calculations tell me, that's a lot of AI content. Players and critics alike have discredited other games for less, like when Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had its Indie Game Awards wins retracted in 2025 for launching with some AI-created textures.
Sacco comments on the new Rideshare "Stimulator" disclosure on Bluesky, writing, "It's even worse than I said it was. I can see why the CEO crashed out when I pointed it out."
It's certainly curious that Saber didn't want to reveal its AI usage sooner considering the scope of it, though fellow hyperactive driving sim Crazy Taxi: World Tour received tornado-wind levels of blowback over its own AI-assisted production so, maybe that's why. But I'd like to remind developers that a good way to avoid controversy over your generative AI usage is to actually not use generative AI. GamesRadar+ recently found out this is also the advice a lawyer would give; video game lawyer Haley MacLean recently told us that she wants studios to know, "Don't touch [gen AI]. It's not worth the legal liability that it brings to you."
That said, Karch claims in a new interview with IGN that Saber isn't "shying away" from its AI usage in Rideshare "Stimulator." He says, "It required us adding two writers and multiple coders to work with AI tools to try and get a reasonable result. Maybe we are bad at business but the net cost of incorporating these features was significantly higher than leaving them out."
He is confident that "AI can and should help shape gamer experiences," though "my PR team is always terrified by even broaching the subject."
"It's not and has never been about efficiencies and team reductions," Karch concludes. Nonetheless, Sacco hasn't budged in her version of events, writing on Bluesky, "Everything I said was true." She maintains that Karch's cynical statements were inappropriate, "and combined with the AI use it will do far more damage to Saber's reputation than it ever could mine." No need to ask ChatGPT if that's true – it sounds right to me.
