{"id":2130990,"date":"2026-09-06T15:40:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T12:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2130990"},"modified":"2026-09-06T15:40:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T12:40:50","slug":"saber-interactive-cco-says-studio-wont-change-its-comms-strategy-after-ai-writer-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2130990","title":{"rendered":"Saber Interactive CCO says studio won&#8217;t change its comms strategy after AI writer controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/rideshare-stimulator\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Rideshare &#8220;Stimulator&#8221;<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Saber Interactive CCO says studio won&#8217;t change its comms strategy after AI writer controversy<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;There&#8217;s always some dust up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/rideshare-saber-sacco.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"A man driving a card with a phone in their hand turns around to the passenger seat, where the camera is, and looks shocked or concerned. In front of him, seen through the windscreen are a group of people who apparently all want to get in.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"rideshare-saber-sacco.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Saber Interactive \/ Unigine<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Vikki Blake avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1533038852.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Vikki Blake avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"1533038852.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/vikki-blake\">Vikki Blake<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\n<p>Published on   <time datetime=\"2026-09-06T15:40:50+00:00\" data-auto-time-zone=\"true\" data-year=\"numeric\" data-month=\"short\" data-day=\"numeric\" data-hour=\"numeric\" data-minute=\"numeric\">Sept. 6, 2026, 3:40 p.m.<\/time>\n              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"header_actions\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"e8ddb528-72d4-4877-ba47-36797e2eec65\" data-name=\"Rideshare \" data-follow-text=\"Follow Rideshare u0026#34;Stimulatoru0026#34;\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Rideshare u0026#34;Stimulatoru0026#34;\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Rideshare \" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Rideshare \" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Rideshare \" title=\"Follow Rideshare \"><br \/>\n  Follow Rideshare &#8220;Stimulator&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/button><br \/>\n  <a class=\"button outline wide preferred_source_button\" data-component=\"preferred-source-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=eurogamer.net\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n    <span class=\"logo\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><br \/>\nPrioritise us on Google  <\/a>\n          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Saber Interactive CCO Tim Willits has confirmed the company has not revised its communications strategy despite its CEO telling the press that he &#8220;would [&#8230;] have been happy to replace [a writer] with AI&#8221; after she claimed she was replaced by ChatGPT.<\/p>\n<p>CEO Matthew Karch has since apologised to Stella Sacco, the writer at the centre of the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/saber-ceo-sacco-chatgpt-ai-rideshare-stimulator-public-spat\"> Rideshare Stimulator AI controversy<\/a>, but not before widespread public condemnation. He also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:7494353074019323904\/\">shared<\/a> a statement saying he&#8217;d had an &#8220;insightful week&#8221; but &#8220;the digital ecosystem thrives on outrage and surface-level takes&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sometimes we &#8216;say what we mean&#8217; too much,&#8221; Willits told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/saber-cco-says-the-studio-isnt-changing-up-its-comms-strategy-after-recent-controversies-theres-always-some-dust-up\/\">PC Gamer<\/a>, reflecting on the blunt comms from the studio&#8217;s leadership.<\/p>\n<p>When PC Gamer pressed directly on whether the recent backlash had prompted reflection, he reportedly said &#8220;no&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been in the industry for so long, and there&#8217;s always some dust up. People got mad at Saber because we put World War Z on Epic, and people were like, &#8216;oh, Saber&#8217;s destroying the industry&#8217;,&#8221; Willits added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now 30 million people have played World War Z. And the games will speak for themselves, even in our experiment with Rideshare [Stimulator].&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He closed by encouraging people to &#8220;check it out when it comes out&#8221; and play it themselves.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They may be like, &#8216;Oh, this is cool! I like this,&#8217; you know. And if they don&#8217;t like it, fine,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are going to stick to making the best games we can. Try to show them, give people an opportunity to play them, and have players make their own decisions because players are smart, you know. You make a good game, they&#8217;ll find it and play it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/saber-interactive-we-can-get-any-ip-gamescom-interview-1\">In a separate interview with Eurogamer,<\/a> Willits said that in an era marked by long periods of little output from studios between big releases, Saber&#8217;s confidence seems so high right now, Willits believes &#8220;we can get any IP&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The studio has finally added the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/saber-rideshare-stimulator-steam-ai-disclaimer\">AI disclaimer to Rideshare Stimulator&#8217;s Steam page<\/a> that had been conspicuously missing since the game first went live for wishlisting on 30th July. Initially, Karch said the disclaimer would come &#8220;once [the game was] finalised&#8221;, but the store has since been updated to include the AI disclosure.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Saber Interactive currently has multiple games in development, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/turok\">Turok<\/a> Origins and Clive Barker&#8217;s Hellraiser: Revival, both having a presence at Gamescom. The studio <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/warhammer-40k-space-marine-3-is-already-in-the-works-and-its-promising-an-even-more-immersive-experience\">is also working on Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3<\/a>, though we&#8217;ve not heard much about that project since its announcement.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Saber Interactive CCO Tim Willits has confirmed the company has not revised its communications strategy despite its CEO telling the press that he &#8220;would [&#8230;] have been happy to replace [a writer] with AI&#8221; after she claimed she was replaced by ChatGPT.<\/p>\n<p>CEO Matthew Karch has since apologised to Stella Sacco, the writer at the centre of the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/saber-ceo-sacco-chatgpt-ai-rideshare-stimulator-public-spat\"> Rideshare Stimulator AI controversy<\/a>, but not before widespread public condemnation. He also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:7494353074019323904\/\">shared<\/a> a statement saying he&#8217;d had an &#8220;insightful week&#8221; but &#8220;the digital ecosystem thrives on outrage and surface-level takes&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sometimes we &#8216;say what we mean&#8217; too much,&#8221; Willits told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/saber-cco-says-the-studio-isnt-changing-up-its-comms-strategy-after-recent-controversies-theres-always-some-dust-up\/\">PC Gamer<\/a>, reflecting on the blunt comms from the studio&#8217;s leadership.<\/p>\n<p>When PC Gamer pressed directly on whether the recent backlash had prompted reflection, he reportedly said &#8220;no&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been in the industry for so long, and there&#8217;s always some dust up. People got mad at Saber because we put World War Z on Epic, and people were like, &#8216;oh, Saber&#8217;s destroying the industry&#8217;,&#8221; Willits added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now 30 million people have played World War Z. And the games will speak for themselves, even in our experiment with Rideshare [Stimulator].&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He closed by encouraging people to &#8220;check it out when it comes out&#8221; and play it themselves.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They may be like, &#8216;Oh, this is cool! I like this,&#8217; you know. And if they don&#8217;t like it, fine,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are going to stick to making the best games we can. Try to show them, give people an opportunity to play them, and have players make their own decisions because players are smart, you know. You make a good game, they&#8217;ll find it and play it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/saber-interactive-we-can-get-any-ip-gamescom-interview-1\">In a separate interview with Eurogamer,<\/a> Willits said that in an era marked by long periods of little output from studios between big releases, Saber&#8217;s confidence seems so high right now, Willits believes &#8220;we can get any IP&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The studio has finally added the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/saber-rideshare-stimulator-steam-ai-disclaimer\">AI disclaimer to Rideshare Stimulator&#8217;s Steam page<\/a> that had been conspicuously missing since the game first went live for wishlisting on 30th July. Initially, Karch said the disclaimer would come &#8220;once [the game was] finalised&#8221;, but the store has since been updated to include the AI disclosure.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Saber Interactive currently has multiple games in development, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/turok\">Turok<\/a> Origins and Clive Barker&#8217;s Hellraiser: Revival, both having a presence at Gamescom. The studio <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/warhammer-40k-space-marine-3-is-already-in-the-works-and-its-promising-an-even-more-immersive-experience\">is also working on Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3<\/a>, though we&#8217;ve not heard much about that project since its announcement.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Rideshare &#8220;Stimulator&#8221; Saber Interactive CCO says studio won&#8217;t change its comms strategy after AI writer controversy &#8220;There&#8217;s always some dust up.&#8221; Image credit: Saber Interactive \/ Unigine News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on Sept. 6, 2026, 3:40 p.m. Follow Rideshare &#8220;Stimulator&#8221; Prioritise us on Google Saber Interactive CCO Tim Willits has confirmed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-2130990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2130990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2130990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2130990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2130990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2130990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2130990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}