Industry News / Upcoming Games

[Antimatter]

Well, probably there is something positive there, considering companies like Double Fine are not closed off. But harming the lives of 3200 people is very, very bad. It's always bad to lose a job, but to lose a job when thousands of people lose it as well, and the industry is relatively small... I don't know how those families will handle.

I'm hearing that ID Software laid off 95 employees today; that's just yikes for any new Doom game. For example, they let people like Colin Geller go - https://www.artstation.com/colingeller (iconic for the Doom franchise).

Here is a list of people who have been laid off from ZOS (Elder Scrolls Online) today:



As you can see, some amazing talent there, e.g. the whole writing/narrative department. Take a look at Bill Slavicsek, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Slavicsek

I think for ESO this news doesn't mean anything good at all.

 

[Cahir]

Getting smaller to get bigger? Oooookaaaaaay....

But, I kinda feel like it is good news in a way. A bunch of the independents that MS sucked up now get to be independent again, right?

Yeah, I this is the difference between them and Sony, I guess. They are at least trying to save some studios in a way instead of shutting them down entirely.

On the other hand, gutting other studios (Zenimax Online, ID Software, Obsidian) doesn't make sense...

 

[JustKneller]

Yeah, I this is the difference between them and Sony, I guess. They are at least trying to save some studios in a way instead of shutting them down entirely.

I remember when both sides were gobbling up various smaller studios to build their 'army' for the anticipated console wars. Both sides definitely overextended themselves. I think giving studios back their independence is probably the best way to handle it. Less overhead for the individual companies might make more projects viable, and the reduced organizational needs might help improve product quality as opposed to catering to the lowest common denominator.

As for Obsidian getting gutted, I think its the curse of FU. Every studio that Feargus has run has ended in tears. I feel bad for id. They were leaders in the field long before Microsoft came along. I'm not sweating Zenimax, though. Fallout 76 was a never ending chain of bad choices, so I just can't muster the sympathy.

 

[Antimatter]

A crazy story this week:

Stella Sacco - a former writer for the upcoming game, Rideshare Stimulator by Saber Interactive - posted on Bluesky that "Saber replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development", adding that the game makes use of generative AI tools for passenger voices.

In a statement to gaming media sites, Saber shot back that "neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI for Rideshare or any other game", insisting that "Rideshare's story was written entirely by real people", and that "none of our 3000+ employees have to worry about being replaced by AI."

They did, however, acknowledge that Rideshare Stimulator has "an experimental, free-ride mode that by necessity incorporates AI as the number of passengers in the game is infinite." There was no associated disclosure on the game's Steam page at the time of announcement, which means that Saber have breached Valve's content policies.

Saber argue that the use of LLMs and voice generation in Rideshare's free-ride mode is necessary to avoid your passengers eventually repeating themselves and becoming "predictable".

Sacco doubled down following Saber's initial response. “They took me off the project to use ChatGPT to write the rest of the text, including planned live updates," she insisted in an email chat with Percival Gamer. "If they changed plans in the intervening years, that’s great, but again: I was there, and it was my job to write the game, and then it wasn’t once Matt Karch decided using ChatGPT would be great publicity for the game.”

Sacco added on Bluesky that her manager at Unigine had argued with the executives against using ChatGPT, but that "the suit insisted ‘gamers love new tech’ so using AI would be ‘great marketing'”.

Saber CEO Matthew Karch then decided to stick his oar in personally, sending This Week In Videogames a catty statement touting his own usage of chatbot tools, and accusing Sacco of lying to whip up scandal. “Stella who?" Karch wrote. "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," Karch went on. "It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed this before we were ready."

Rideshare Stimulator's usage of generative AI is a "plus for customers", Karch insisted. “As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later," he said. "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.”

You can check more details about this in the RPS article here: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ri...the-game-also-uses-the-tech-for-in-game-music

 

[Cahir]

A crazy story this week:

Stella Sacco - a former writer for the upcoming game, Rideshare Stimulator by Saber Interactive - posted on Bluesky that "Saber replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development", adding that the game makes use of generative AI tools for passenger voices.

In a statement to gaming media sites, Saber shot back that "neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI for Rideshare or any other game", insisting that "Rideshare's story was written entirely by real people", and that "none of our 3000+ employees have to worry about being replaced by AI."

They did, however, acknowledge that Rideshare Stimulator has "an experimental, free-ride mode that by necessity incorporates AI as the number of passengers in the game is infinite." There was no associated disclosure on the game's Steam page at the time of announcement, which means that Saber have breached Valve's content policies.

Saber argue that the use of LLMs and voice generation in Rideshare's free-ride mode is necessary to avoid your passengers eventually repeating themselves and becoming "predictable".

Sacco doubled down following Saber's initial response. “They took me off the project to use ChatGPT to write the rest of the text, including planned live updates," she insisted in an email chat with Percival Gamer. "If they changed plans in the intervening years, that’s great, but again: I was there, and it was my job to write the game, and then it wasn’t once Matt Karch decided using ChatGPT would be great publicity for the game.”

Sacco added on Bluesky that her manager at Unigine had argued with the executives against using ChatGPT, but that "the suit insisted ‘gamers love new tech’ so using AI would be ‘great marketing'”.

Saber CEO Matthew Karch then decided to stick his oar in personally, sending This Week In Videogames a catty statement touting his own usage of chatbot tools, and accusing Sacco of lying to whip up scandal. “Stella who?" Karch wrote. "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," Karch went on. "It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed this before we were ready."

Rideshare Stimulator's usage of generative AI is a "plus for customers", Karch insisted. “As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later," he said. "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.”

You can check more details about this in the RPS article here: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ri...the-game-also-uses-the-tech-for-in-game-music

Funny place to work at, this Saber Interactive.