"The games will speak for themselves."

User Image

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

In a recent interview with PC Gamer's Joshua Wolens at this year's Gamescom, Saber Interactive CCO Tim Willits admitted the studio's leadership had a reputation for saying precisely what it means—"sometimes we 'say what we mean' too much," he laughed. But when asked if recent controversies would change the studio's comms approach, he said "no."

"I've been in the industry for so long, and there's always some dust up," Willits explained. "People got mad at Saber because we put World War Z on Epic, and people were like, 'oh, Saber's destroying the industry.' Now 30 million people have played World War Z. And the games will speak for themselves, even in our experiment with Rideshare [Stimulator]."

If you haven't been keeping up with the latest drama Saber Interactive has courted, here's the skinny: former Saber Interactive writer Stella Sacco claimed she was fired and replaced with AI during the development of Rideshare Stimulator.

Saber's comms department initially put out a fairly benign statement disputing the details of the claim, but CEO Matt Karch subsequently issued a statement to This Week In Videogames that was both aggressively pro-AI, and personally insulting to Sacco.

Karch apologized privately to Sacco before releasing a statement reflecting on the incident which itself contained a targeted barb for a different games industry writer that has since been edited.

User Image

All that might sound like an avalanche of unforced errors on Saber's part, but Willits said Rideshare Stimulator will speak for itself regardless of any concerns about AI and Sacco's treatment. "I encourage people to check it out when it comes out, play it themselves," Willits said. "They may be like 'oh, this is cool! I like this,' you know. And if they don't like it, fine.

"We are going to stick to making the best games we can. Try to show them, give people an opportunity to play them, and have players make their own decisions because players are smart, you know. You make a good game, they'll find it and play it."

From the creators of Edge: A free weekly videogame industry newsletter, featuring in-depth news, expert analysis and exclusive interviews

2026 games: All the upcoming gamesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together

2026 games: Upcoming gamesBest PC games: All-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

User Image

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com

What do you think about this?