Saber Interactive CEO responds poorly to AI accusation leaving Warhammer players fearful for Space Marine 3

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine has become one of the most successful video game series in the Warhammer franchise, but comments made by Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch have gamers worried about the future.

Saber Interactive developed Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, but it’s also the developer behind several other highly popular titles, including upcoming games like John Wick, Stuntman Hollywood, and Hellraiser: Revival.

However, Warhammer fans are now second-guessing whether the studio is well-equipped to handle the Space Marine series going forward, after accusations of an AI takeover were levied against the company.

Ex-Saber employee Stella Sacco reacted to the recently announced Rideshare Simulator, saying: “I was lead writer on this one! And Saber replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development. All the passenger voices were AI too."

This claim resulted in a lot of backlash, but Saber responded by saying no writers have ever been replaced with AI on any of its titles.

It’s Saber’s CEO Matthew Karch who has fans the most worried, though, as his statement to This Week In Video Games was rather…passionate.

‘I would frankly in retrospect have been happy to replace her with Al’

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

He went on to explain that while AI tools are being used, they’re not replacing actual people. “We look at our use of Al in [Rideshare Simulator], which will be a lower priced title, as a plus for consumers.”

What really caught fans off guard, however, was his closing statement, which read: "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 Al. At least we would be dealing with someone programmed to be honest.”

The above quotation was shared to the Space Marine subreddit by Curious-Research-559, who simply said: ‘Space Marine 3 is [not looking good!].

“I used to say games workshop is too controlling of Saber and of the space marine games… Maybe I was judging too hastily,” replied PacoThePersian.

“Wow. Bro's PR guy is probably having an absolute crash out right about now,” read another comment by Agentjayjay1.

With any luck, fans actually don’t have anything to worry about with Space Marine 3. While Games Workshop has had a few AI accusations thrown its way, the company has been very transparent about its desire to promote human-led art, products, and experiences.

Given how protective it is of its franchise, any potential AI usage in the next Space Marine game will hopefully be squashed.

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