Saber Interactive's CEO Matt Karch walked into a hornet's nest this week after reports surfaced that the studio had removed a rideshare driver narrative designer from credits on a recent project. Karch denied replacing the writer with ChatGPT, but his follow-up statement revealed how little he actually cares about the distinction.
"I would frankly in retrospect have been happy to replace her with AI," Karch told Kotaku, addressing backlash over the missing Steam disclosure crediting the original writer. The statement, however accidentally, encapsulates a growing tension in game development. Studios face mounting pressure to cut costs, AI tools sit readily available, and executives are openly considering which human jobs deserve elimination.
Saber Interactive, owned by Embracer Group, develops games across multiple platforms including ports, remakes, and original titles. The studio has grown into a mid-size operation with roughly 200 employees. Karch's comment arrived during a period when major publishers have slashed headcount aggressively. Embracer itself laid off nearly 900 employees in 2023, roughly 13 percent of its workforce.
The missing writer credit on Steam sparked the initial controversy. Karch stated the disclosure will be added eventually, a non-committal timeline that suggests neither urgency nor priority. When pressed on why the credit disappeared in the first place, Karch's answer shifted from denial to hypothetical endorsement of AI replacement. That rhetorical move matters. It signals that whether or not this specific writer was replaced by ChatGPT, the CEO views human narrative designers as interchangeable with language models.
Game narrative designers traditionally shape character voices, dialogue trees, story pacing, and thematic coherence. These roles demand creative judgment, player psychology understanding, and iterative revision based on playtesting feedback. ChatGPT generates text from patterns in training data without understanding narrative structure, emotional resonance, or game design constraints. The tool excels at mimicking existing templates. It struggles with original direction and consistent voice across complex interactive systems.
Karch's willingness to publicly entertain replacing writers with AI reflects broader industry skepticism about creative roles. Publishers already cut quality assurance teams aggressively over the past decade. Outsourcing narrative work to cheaper regions or freelance markets has become standard. AI presents the next frontier. If a CEO can publicly state he would have been "happy" to use ChatGPT instead of paying a human writer, that statement signals to other studios that the same calculus appears reasonable.
The irony cuts deeper. Games with strong narratives command higher prices and stronger player attachment. Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, and The Outer Worlds all benefited from deliberate, human-crafted storytelling. Yet cost-cutting logic pushes in the opposite direction, prioritizing expense reduction over creative output quality.
Saber Interactive will add the missing writer credit to Steam. Karch will likely face no consequences beyond this week's headlines. But his comment revealed what many executives think privately. Human narrative designers represent an expense line item to eliminate whenever the financial case appears sufficient. Whether that happens through direct replacement or gradual attrition, the incentive structure now points clearly in one direction.