Saber Interactive chief creative officer Tim Willits told GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom that the studio has "never replaced anybody with AI," pushing back against former writer Stella Sacco's claim that she had been cut from Rideshare Stimulator and replaced with ChatGPT.

The dispute resurfaced in Cologne after Sacco said in August she had served as lead writer on the driving game before Saber "replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development." CEO Matthew Karch replied dismissively on social media: "Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her … As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later."

Sacco fired back: "Everything I said was true. Here's more truth: that statement is remarkably pathetic for the CEO of any company to be making."

What did Willits actually say?

Willits, speaking during the show, attributed Karch's tone to sarcasm rather than substance. "That's just Matt's sarcasm, that's all," he said. He then drew a line around the studio's production pipeline.

"The important thing is that we've never replaced anybody with AI. That's crazy. And we don't use generative AI in Space Marine, and Hellraiser, and Stuntman, and everything," Willits said. He added that code, environments, and textures across Saber's projects remain free of generative AI.

Where does Saber actually use AI?

Saber's current experimentation sits inside one title: Rideshare Stimulator. The game's Steam listing states the "main Campaign story, characters, and dialogue are written by a team of human writers," while AI handles voice generation, some localization, and the optional Free Ride mode's AI-generated passenger missions and dialogue. The in-game radio stations mix human-composed tracks with AI-generated music.

Willits framed the Free Ride mode as a controlled experiment. "We are experimenting with it with the AI mode. Very clear that the other stuff was all written by humans. Even the side missions were all written by humans."

Is Karch's statement credible?

Karch's post drew criticism in part because he appeared to claim ignorance of a writer credited on the project prior to Sacco's August comments. Karch has not retracted or clarified the exchange since Gamescom. Willits did not address the discrepancy directly.

Where does the industry go from here?

Willits predicted Gamescom 2025 will surface shipping titles built around AI. "I bet at next year's Gamescom, I think we'll have some bigger games that actually focus on [AI]," he said, treating Rideshare Stimulator's optional mode as a probe rather than a roadmap.

He drew a parallel to past platform shifts. "We all discover that it'll fit into everyday life," Willits said, arguing that a developer will eventually surface a "clever and brilliant use case for true modern AI integration" that resets industry expectations.

What changes for studios and businesses?

For Saber, the operational answer is bifurcated: human-authored narrative work continues across Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, Hellraiser, Stuntman, and other shipped projects, while one title absorbs the experimentation risk with an opt-in mode and a Steam disclosure page. For peer studios, the Rideshare Stimulator Steam page is now a reference point for what an AI-disclosure section reads like in 2024: what was human-written, what was AI-generated, and which content loops AI touches.

The handling itself — a sarcastic CEO denial followed by a more measured CCO clarification on the floor of Europe's largest games industry show — will likely draw attention in HR-facing communications around AI rollouts. Watch for Sacco's next public reply, any formal clarification from Karch, and player reception to Rideshare Stimulator's AI-driven Free Ride mode once it ships.