Last month, Saber Interactive revealed Rideshare Stimulator, a game that’s essentially Crazy Taxi with a grayish and drab late-stage capitalism filter. The reveal was notable beyond the “Hey, look at our new game!” because it contained a thinly veiled swipe at Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford. But now the game’s causing commotion for a far less fun reason: former Saber Interactive writer Stella Sacco claims that she was writing for the game before Saber replaced her with ChatGPT.
“I was lead writer on this one! And Saber replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development,” Sacco wrote on Bluesky.
This isn’t the first time Sacco has shared her experience with genAI during her time at Saber Interactive, having posted back in December that she had been “replaced” by ChatGPT on an unnamed game. Sacco also said that the decision to stuff Rideshare with genAI came from Saber, which published the game, and not from the game’s developer, UNIGINE. In a statement sent to PC Gamer, Saber Interactive PR denied the claim. “Neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI for Rideshare or any other game,” the statement said. “Rideshare‘s story was written entirely by real people.”
Saber’s denial, though, includes a bit about how, “by necessity,” Rideshare uses genAI to support the game’s “infinite” number of NPC passengers. “The game will also feature an experimental, free-ride mode that by necessity incorporates AI as the number of passengers in the game is infinite,” Saber said to PC Gamer. “We are firm believers in using AI tools to improve or enhance gameplay experiences and improve NPC behavior.”
So by Saber’s own admission, Rideshare uses genAI to create and perform dialogue for the game’s NPCs. That makes sense because one of the things I noticed in Rideshare‘s trailer was how passenger dialogue and mouth movements were so noticeably out of sync, like something you’d see in a PS2 game from 20 years ago.
On Bluesky, Sacco addressed the statement. “Saber PR responded to my post by saying that the story was written by people and no writers were replaced, buuuuut also that the game uses AI generated text and voices. C’mon man lmao.”
