Earlier this week, Stella Sacco, former lead writer at Saber Interactive, claimed on social media that the company had “replaced me with ChatGPT mid-development” of the Rideshare game “Stimulator,” that “all rider voices [in the game] they were AI” and that “they either changed direction at some point or they’re not revealing it on Steam.” I didn’t even see this had been announced. I was the lead writer on this! And Saber replaced me with ChatGPT mid-development. All the passenger voices were AI too. They either changed direction at some point or they’re not revealing it on Steam.[image or embed]— Stella Sacco (@antlervel.vet) August 12, 2026 at 1:05 am In an initial statement to PC Gamer, Saber addressed these accusations somewhat bluntly: Neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any AI writers for Rideshare or any other game. In fact, Saber’s writing staff has tripled since 2023. The Rideshare story was written entirely by real people. The game will also feature an experimental free ride mode that necessarily incorporates AI since the number of passengers in the game is infinite. We strongly believe in using AI tools to enhance gaming experiences and improve NPC behavior, as we have since Saber was founded in 2001. As the industry continues to contract, Saber continues to hire. None of our 3,000+ employees have to worry about being replaced by AI. To which Sacco responded, also to PC Gamer, saying: They can say what they want; I was there, I even posted about it on Facebook at the time and mentioned it on Bluesky several times without using the game’s title. I was pulled from the project to use ChatGPT to write the rest of the text, including planned live updates. If they changed plans in the intervening years, that’s great, but again: I was there, and it was my job to write the game, and then there was once Matt Karch decided that using ChatGPT would be great advertising for the game. Matt Karch is the CEO of Sabre, and today he decided to join the discussion (and set his professional reputation on fire) by sending a follow-up statement to TWIVG, in which he puts together four paragraphs that combine the personal and the deeply unprofessional. insults with more confessions about the use of AI in Rideshare “Stimulator”, despite the game’s Steam page containing no AI revelations. “Stella, who? I had to ask Claude because I’ve never spoken to her or seen her. We’ve already said that we’re using AI for certain parts of the game and we’ll update the Steam page once we’ve finalized the feature set. “Let me clarify that the entire story script, if it won an award, would go to someone who can go up on stage and receive it. It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed it before we were ready. “We view our use of AI in this particular game, which will be a lower-priced title, as an advantage to consumers,” he said. “As far as Stella goes, she was replaced by someone more talented and fired for a variety of reasons a few months later. From what I can gather, she enjoys controversy even more than I do. Frankly, in retrospect, I would have loved to replace her with AI. At least we’d be dealing with someone programmed to be honest.” We know that many video game industry professionals read this website. If that’s you, I hope you remember this statement every time Saber Interactive and its CEO cross your paths in the future. Note: Sacco is friends with several members of the Aftermath staff, although he is not the writer or editor of this story. Everything I said was true. There’s more truth here: That statement is remarkably pathetic for the CEO of any company, and combined with the use of AI it will do far more damage to Sabre’s reputation than it ever could damage mine. This document will be many people’s first exposure to the Saber brand. — Stella Sacco (@antlervel.vet) August 13, 2026 at 9:58 am Saber Interactive will not pay $3.1 million in Wild Card football licensing fees, says Football Union The dispute has been ongoing for years over the game and its royalty payments
