The rideshare stimulator AI fiasco almost came to an end today, but not quite, when writer Stella Sacco shared that she had received a private message from Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch, who apologized for his hurtful comments to the press about his employment and capabilities.
In a separate post on LinkedIn, Karch reflected on the controversy and apparently alluded to his personal contact with Sacco. But he also couldn’t resist attacking Portal writer Chet Faliszek, who has publicly criticized Karch for his actions, most notably in the form of a 26 minute blogger on youtube.
The shortest of summaries if you haven’t been paying attention (bless you):
- Saber Interactive releases a trailer for Rideshare Stimulator, a mundane work simulator where you play as a taxi driver.
- Writer Stella Sacco claims to have worked on the game before being fired, and then an LLM took over her workload.
- Saber’s official statement on the matter admitted the use of AI in Rideshare Stimulator, but denied that the writers were largely replaced by AI tools.
- Saber CEO Matt Karch provided his own statement to This week in video gamesbelittling Sacco’s competence, stating that it was not replaced by an LLM, but also that “frankly, in hindsight, I would have loved to replace it with AI.”
Today, Sacco shared a post with Bluesky saying that Karch had sent him a message and that he “unreservedly apologized for the way he talked about me in the press.” While Sacco noted that she and Karch remained opposed in their personal stances on the use of AI, she concluded that “apologies are too rare these days to refuse one when it’s offered.”
Excellent. Awesome. It would have been a wonderful place to end things. But Karch also shared his own additional statement on the matter. LinkedIn. Karch did not mention Sacco by name, but reflected primarily on his experience, particularly the negative consequences of responding to a feeling of personal insult with a public statement. Karch also noted that he stands firm when it comes to implementing generative AI in games.
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How not to respond to the press – Saber Interactive – YouTube
“Resolve problems person to person,” Karch wrote, apparently alluding to the apology Sacco received from him. “Escalating disputes through media channels or public statements rarely resolves anything. True resolution occurs through a direct, personal connection. If you cross a line, acknowledge it directly to the person involved.”
But Karch’s fourth paragraph in the post left us stumped. “The digital ecosystem thrives on outrage and superficial takes,” Karch wrote. “Case in point: a 26-minute video essay by a failed writer devoted entirely to analyzing a single sarcastic quote of mine and pretending he knew exactly who I am, which somehow concluded with personal comments about my physical anatomy and encouragement to approach me.
“When ‘industry analysis’ turns into insults and personal threats, it says a lot more about the creator than it does about the topic. Relying on outrage algorithms for industry insights is a trap.”
PC Gamer’s top news hound Andy Chalk noted that this could only refer to an August 14 video shared by Chet Faliszek, a veteran writer whose credits include Portal, Left 4 Dead, and the Half-Life episodes. The video in question, “Who is the CEO of Saber Interactive?” runs for 26 minutes and 13 seconds, and Faliszek repeatedly states that Karch’s behavior is making up for something. Faliszek also tells viewers that, if they encountered Karch at an industry event, they should “make fun of him.”
To be fair to Karch: Faliszek is repeatedly taunted and insulted throughout the video, even going so far as to extrapolate that he has a domineering nature and that his actions are intended, at least in part, to discipline and control Saber employees. I can see some justice in an eye for an eye in getting revenge on the person who said that.
But also: Faliszek’s main argument in the video is that, aside from Karch’s personal character or the ethics of Sacco’s original treatment, Karch’s statement to This Week in Video Games was a completely avoidable public relations and marketing catastrophe that made the controversy worse.
Karch’s own conclusion in the same LinkedIn post where he criticized Faliszek was that he should not have said anything and left it to the communications team. At the time of writing, Faliszek’s video has 4,000 views—not much.
Karch ignored Faliszek’s advice and his own and escalated again, just as things were calming down, by providing so much identifying information about Faliszek’s video. He effectively expanded the story to “Sabre CEO vs. Portal writer” in a way that I’m now professionally obligated to take note of.
