Rideshare Stimulator is a zany simulator published by Saber Interactive and developed by UNIGINE that was announced on July 30. Although it currently has no release date, the game is already at the center of a controversy.
On Bluesky, Stella Sacco explained that she had served as lead writer on the project for a year, until July 2024. She stated that Saber Interactive subsequently decided to fire her and replace her with ChatGPT halfway through development. Sacco added fuel to the fire by pointing out that the voices of all the passengers in Rideshare Stimulator were generated by AI, something that’s not stated on Steam.
Shortly thereafter, Matthew Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive, spoke out on the matter. Suffice it to say, he didn’t mince words, explaining that Stella Sacco had been replaced by someone more talented and that she was thoroughly enjoying the controversy. Karch concluded his remarks by adding that he would have liked to replace her with AI.
“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.
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 was quick to respond, stating that Matthew Karch likely didn’t want the use of AI on Rideshare Stimulator to become public knowledge. She called Karch’s statement “pathetic.”
“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.”
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