Space Marine 2 Developers Reinforce Commitment Following AI Debate

Saber Interactive’s CEO, Matthew Karch, is making his position on AI quite clear. In a recent statement, he emphasized that the studio is fully embracing AI-driven features, such as generative speech and text, in their upcoming title, Rideshare Stimulator. He even mentioned he would have been “happy” to replace a former writer with AI.

The controversy surrounding Rideshare Stimulator kicked off when the game’s former lead writer, Stella Sacco, revealed on social media that she was replaced by ChatGPT during development. She expressed her surprise at the game’s announcement, stating, “I didn’t even see this had been announced. 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.” Currently, Rideshare Stimulator lacks the necessary AI disclosure on the platform.

In response to Sacco’s claims, Saber Interactive issued a statement denying that any writers were replaced by AI for Rideshare or any other project. However, they did confirm that the game incorporates generative AI and will introduce a previously unannounced “free ride” mode featuring “infinite” passengers.

Sacco countered the studio’s denial, asserting, “I was there, and it was my job to write the game, and then it wasn’t once Matt Karch decided using ChatGPT would be great publicity for the game.”

Karch took a confrontational stance in a statement, saying, “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.” He further claimed, “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.”

Sacco responded to Karch’s remarks, stating, “I’ve seen the statement by Matt Karch, and all of the truly horrendous things he said about me. I think it should be obvious to anyone who reads that statement that he’s lashing out because he did not want people to know there was AI use in the game.” She added, “Everything I said was true. Here’s more truth: that statement is remarkably pathetic for the CEO of any company to be making, and combined with the AI use, it will do far more damage to Saber’s reputation than it ever could mine. This screed will be many people’s first exposure to the Saber brand.”

This isn’t the first time Karch has stirred controversy. He recently acknowledged taking a jab at Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford in the Rideshare Stimulator announcement trailer, stating, “Without Embracer, Randy is performing magic tricks at birthday parties for a living.”

After the release of Saber Interactive’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, YouTuber Asmongold praised the game in a video. Karch appeared to comment on Asmongold’s video, saying, “Hey man, CEO of Saber here. I love your videos.” He added, “I hope that games like Space Marine 2 and Wukong are the start of a reversion to a time when games were simply about fun and immersion. I spent some time as Chief Operating Officer at Embracer and I saw games there that made me want to cry with their overblown attempts at messaging or imposing morals on gamers.” Many interpreted his comments about “imposing morals on gamers” as an “anti-woke” sentiment, often echoed by right-wing culture warriors when discussing diverse characters in games. In the video, Asmongold criticized the game Dustborn, which had faced backlash from right-wing commentators for its inclusive cast.

Saber has not clarified whether Karch’s comment on the Asmongold video was indeed from the CEO, but Karch later remarked on LinkedIn that “whoever wrote that seems pretty sharp.”

In a recent interview session with Twitch streamers and content creators, Saber Interactive clarified its stance on AI usage.