Saber Interactive's chief creative officer, Tim Willits, has expressed confidence that players will come to understand and accept the use of generative AI in video games, despite the controversy surrounding the upcoming title, Rideshare Stimulator. The game, an Uber simulator, faced significant backlash after a former writer revealed its use of generative AI for player dialogue in its Free Ride mode, an aspect that was initially undisclosed on its Steam page. This situation was compounded by an aggressive public response from Saber CEO Matt Karch, who has since apologized.
Willits clarified that the main narrative and missions in Rideshare Stimulator are human-written, drawing parallels to the structured gameplay of SnowRunner. The generative AI is specifically employed in the Free Ride mode, where passenger dialogue will be dynamically generated by a large language model. "What we want to do is feed current events, like maybe there's some soccer game, and some ride will get in and talk about it," Willits explained, positioning this as a trial run for the technology in a smaller-scale game.
He emphasized that Rideshare Stimulator is currently Saber's only project utilizing generative AI. Titles like Space Marine 2, Hellraiser, and Jurassic Park do not incorporate this technology, but Saber is exploring its potential. The initial lack of disclosure on the Steam page, Willits attributed to a "plan that got a little sideways," involving a phased reveal of game features that was disrupted by premature leaks.
Despite the issue with initial disclosure, Willits believes that players questioning the use of AI in other Saber titles, such as Road Kings, are likely "overthinking it." He points to the company's overall positive pre-order numbers as an indicator that player interest remains strong. Willits drew parallels to past industry shifts, such as Quake 3 requiring a video card or the initial launch of Steam, both of which faced significant player backlash before ultimately being accepted.
"I think we're in a period now of technology change that people are really unsure about," Willits stated. "We, as game developers, don't really know what we're doing with it yet. Players don't really know what's going on with it." He anticipates that a breakthrough game will eventually clarify the technology's potential for everyone.
Willits views Rideshare Stimulator as a strategic experiment, allowing Saber to test generative AI on a smaller project before potentially implementing it in larger, tentpole releases. He highlighted the Free Ride mode's passenger dialogue as a feature that would be prohibitively expensive and complex to implement without AI, requiring a large team of writers to respond to real-time events. He expressed a desire to see Saber produce AI-driven content that surpasses the often formulaic and predictable experiences seen in other games that have integrated LLMs.