Saber Interactive CEO Matt Karch has ignited a firestorm of criticism following a public statement addressing claims made by former writer Stella Sacco. Sacco asserted that she was dismissed from her role as lead writer on the upcoming driving simulator "Rideshare Stimulator" and replaced by generative AI. Saber Interactive has denied Sacco's account, stating that the game's story was "entirely written by real people," though the company has acknowledged using AI in development and plans to update the Steam page accordingly.
Sacco, who was reportedly removed from the project in 2023, maintained her recollection of events. The situation escalated when Karch released a statement to This Week in Video Games that has been widely described as confusing and combative. In the statement, Karch alleged Sacco violated a confidentiality agreement by discussing her departure.
Karch's statement also contained contradictory remarks, first denying Sacco's assertion about AI replacement and then claiming that he had to use an AI chatbot to identify her. He further stated that Sacco was replaced by "someone more talented" and that, in retrospect, he would have been "happy to replace her with AI" because AI is "programmed to be honest."
The full statement from Karch reads: "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."
Responding to Karch's comments on social media platform Bluesky, Sacco characterized the CEO's statement as "remarkably pathetic." She reiterated that her original claims were truthful and suggested that Karch's remarks, coupled with the undisclosed AI usage, would cause more damage to Saber's reputation than any statement she made could cause to her own career. "This screed will be many people's first exposure to the Saber brand," Sacco commented.