From the Saber Interactive CEO:

“Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her. We have already said we are using AI for certain parts of the game and will update the Steam page once we have finalized the feature set.

“Let me clarify that the entire story script, were it to win an award, would go to someone who can walk up on stage and receive it. It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed this before we were ready.

“We look at our use of AI in this particular game, which will be a lower priced title, as a plus for consumers,” he said.

“As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later. From what I can gather she enjoys controversy even more than I do. I would frankly in retrospect have been happy to replace her with AI. At least we would be dealing with someone programmed to be honest.”

  • Jayjader@jlai.lu
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    9 hours ago

    I would frankly in retrospect have been happy to replace her with AI. At least we would be dealing with someone programmed to be honest.

    This intended burn is such a self-own it’s not even funny any more. The sycophantic word-predictor is not programmed to be “honest”, it doesn’t even have intent in the first place!

  • kawakeiko@sh.itjust.works
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    8 hours ago

    When people question why AI is so hated, this is a good example why. This trash of a human being has no shame in saying he’d be happy to replace her with AI, implying she’s disposable and not acknoledging her as part of the team, and “had to ask Claude” because he had never spoken or seen her. What a shitty example of management coming from Saber.

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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    8 hours ago

    This kind of guy is why cops have to read you Miranda rights.

    Also this headline is fucking terrible. I reflexively downvoted it, because it reads like ‘do you still beat your wife.’ Studio denies these claims we’re repeating! CEO generically “”“responds.”“” But no, the CEO didn’t fucking deny it, he basically confirmed it in the smarmiest way possible. How did you bungle this both ways?

  • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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    17 hours ago

    “We look at our use of AI in this particular game, which will be a lower priced title, as a plus for consumers,” he said.

    Really? Do you think the consumers will feel the same way?

  • DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    If you’ve never spoken to her or seen her, then how do you know she was replaced by someone “more talented”

    This dude is not only a psychopath, he’s a complete idiot. Does the CEO just get to release a statement no matter what? I feel like anyone else who proofread this could have told him this was going to make him hated.

    • Jacob_Mandarin@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      But. But. But…… Chatgpt told me that the response was perfect!!

      Edit: Actually on second thought it was probably more like. Chatgpt generate a response completely discrediting her. Dude most likely does not do anything himself anymore

    • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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      19 hours ago

      I already dropped anything they develop or publish from my Steam wishlist. And once I log into desktop they’re getting put on the ignore list

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Yeah, even just going purely by just that response quote in this post is enough for me to detest that guy and want the company that chose him to lead to fail.

      Though I do kinda wish that leaker had waited because it’s easy to say “we were going to reveal it later” even if they had no intention of revealing anything. If this had come out at release, then that excuse wouldn’t have been available (assuming my hunch that they weren’t going to say shit was right).

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Turns out I have 3 of their games on my wishlist.

        Roadcraft, recent reviews mixed, looks like that was from before this controversy as only one that I looked at mentioned it. Others mention things like the characters and story seeming like they were produced by AI. “The story is so generic and blandly written, I wonder if humans were involved or not.” Others complain about the game being janky and lacking polish. Someone preordered the ultimate edition and was upset they paid $100 for it and it didn’t include DLC (there’s 5 paid DLCs, game was released in May '25).

        Tempest Rising, though for this one they are only listed as a publisher. Reviews are mostly positive (though there’s a negative one that mentions this).

        Space Marines 2, this one is currently showing up as “Very Positive” but it looks like this might bring it down into the mixed area because there’s a lot of negative reviews mentioning this, though. Oh it uses kernel anti-cheat so I guess I wasn’t getting it anyways.

          • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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            23 hours ago

            Search for the developer name to see their full list, as there’s a bunch more. I just listed the ones I had on my wishlist before purging them. And if you want to just filter anything they make going forward, on their developer/publisher page, there’s a gearbox that has ignore options. And if you want to undo that, the list of ignored games and companies is somewhere in the settings.

      • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
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        1 day ago

        The leaker was probably riding high on that anger energy, and for good reason.

        The guy’s response is immature and makes it obvious he doesn’t care about quality or making something genuine. He’d rather have a conveyor belt of slopware games.

  • Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz
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    It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed this before we were ready.

    I imagine they’d only have been ‘ready’ after most sales would have occurred.

  • Visstix@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Tech bros are the dumbest mofos on the planet, but somehow they keep getting work and money while adding negative value to the world.

    • Lemmayng@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Edit: Pic added

      For anyone else who wants to do so:

      Search for Saber Interactive, click gear icon, select “ignore from this publisher”.

    • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world
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      As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later. From what I can gather she enjoys controversy even more than I do.

      It was the “bitches be crazy” defense that really made me decide to boycott this company.

      • wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        The fact that this splurt from his smooth brain states that he enjoys controversy, just like her, allegedly… just, oof.

        His claim is more unsubstantiated noise at the same moment it’s a personal admission of being a proud & loudmouthed scrote tick.

        In one sentence, he’s whined and pointed out someone else who “enjoys” being a tedious fuck —just like him. 🤦🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️

        What a stupid prick.

        The lesson here is older than civilization itself: “When someone shows you who they are, pay attention.”

  • Zahille7@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Godfuckingdammit. They’re the ones making the Hellraiser game coming out in October and now I’m gonna have to miss out on principle.

    This is fucking bullshit.

    • DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      No… Dude what… I’m literally rewatching Hellraiser right now and re reading all the books to get ready for it.

      I’m just gonna pirate it then. But that kills me because Jericho did so bad I was going to buy this on PC and it was going to be the last disc I ever bought for PS5.

      Man… fuck.

    • egrets@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I’ve struck the KOTOR remake off my wishlist, and I was thinking of buying Road Redemption and now absolutely will not. It’s a shame, but I’m not giving them a cent.

    • wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      Users can burn Goodwill as fuel? That’s handy. Maybe they’ll stop exploiting the disabled and the grieving. 🤷🏼‍♂️

      Make us proud, fellow users! Show us the way, teach us about Man’s red flower!

  • CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    They need to work on their public relations. Maybe hire someone and listen as this is the opposite of damage limitation. It went from looking sketchy and dishonest. To sketchy, dishonest, rude, with fragile egos and just generally not nice people.

    Wouldn’t touch one of their products even if I wanted to.