Former id Software Co-Owner Defends Saber Interactive in AI Game Dispute

Tim Willits, for years co-owner and creative director of id Software and now Chief Creative Officer at Saber Interactive, has openly backed the use of generative artificial intelligence in game development. He made the comments amid a controversy that has been unfolding since mid-August 2026 around the studio's upcoming game Rideshare.

From Scandal to AI Defense

The story began with a post from Stella Sacco, lead writer on the driving simulator Rideshare, previously known under the working title Stimulator. Sacco wrote that ChatGPT took over her work during production, and that the voices of all passengers in the game were AI-generated without this being properly disclosed on the game's Steam page. According to her account, Saber Interactive's management treated replacing the writer with AI as part of a marketing strategy, arguing that players like new technology.

CEO's Botched Response

Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch responded to the accusations in a statement given to This Week in Video Games on August 13. He said he had never spoken with Sacco and had to ask the AI assistant Claude about her, adding that the writer had been let go for other reasons and "was replaced by someone more talented."

Honestly, looking back, I would gladly have replaced her with artificial intelligence - Matthew Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive

The remark sparked a wave of criticism on social media and gaming forums, especially among fans of the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine series, which Saber Interactive also develops. Under pressure, the company issued an apology and pledged that it would never fire an employee to replace them with artificial intelligence, while at the same time announcing it would continue its experiment with AI-generated voices in Rideshare's Free Ride mode.

Willits Draws a Quake III Parallel

Tim Willits, who co-founded id Software and was behind titles like Doom, Quake and Rage before joining Saber Interactive as creative director, weighed in on the dispute. Asked at Gamescom 2026 whether id Software would have used generative AI had it existed while he was working on successive Quake installments, he answered yes without hesitation.

Yes, of course. John Carmack would be like making Skynet or something - Tim Willits, Creative Director of Saber Interactive

Willits recalled the 1999 episode when Quake III Arena required players to own a dedicated graphics card, a demand that drew sharp criticism from the community at the time despite being taken for granted today. In his view, resistance to generative AI in games follows the same pattern: pushback against a new technology that will eventually become the standard.

A Limited Experiment

In a follow-up statement on August 28, 2026, Willits clarified that outside of Rideshare, the studio is not currently using generative AI on other projects, and that licensed properties like Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 rule out its use anyway due to the IP owner's restrictions.

Consumers don't really know what they want and what they don't want - Tim Willits, Creative Director of Saber Interactive

The creative director stressed that Rideshare remains a small, experimental project meant to test whether generative AI works for game production at all. He did not rule out, however, that the approach could be extended to other studio titles if it proves successful.

What It Means for the Industry

The dispute surrounding Saber Interactive shows how much tension the topic of replacing creators with generative AI stirs up in the games industry, especially when it touches creative roles like writers or voice actors. Players' reaction to Rideshare, including mass removals of the game from Steam wishlists and a wave of critical comments under its trailers, suggests that acceptance of such solutions is still far from the level Willits assumes in his comparison to graphics cards from more than two decades ago.