Saber CEO Matthew Karch apologises to writer he called replaceable by AI

Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch has apologised to writer Stella Sacco after publicly saying he would have been "happy to replace her with AI" during the Rideshare Simulator controversy. Sacco shared the news in a statement sent to Eurogamer and posted on her Bluesky account, saying she received "a long email" from Karch overnight in which he "apologised unreservedly for the awful way he spoke about me in the press".

Sacco confirmed the email was genuine but said its full contents would stay private. According to her, Karch expressed regret over "escalating" the dispute and over the way people online had subsequently spoken about her. She accepted the apology while being clear it changes nothing about her position on AI in games: "Matt and I obviously differ on this, and as a CEO the consequences of its use fall on him, and unfortunately also on his employees." She also pushed back on the framing — which she said Karch helped fuel — that speaking out about bad treatment means she "must love drama or be hard to work with," noting that such treatment is common across the industry and she is simply more willing than most to name it. Karch also posted on LinkedIn, reflecting on the "unwritten rules" placed on modern CEOs and acknowledging that responding publicly rather than staying silent had invited further escalation.

The original dispute centred on Sacco's work on Rideshare Simulator and went public when Karch made comments in the press suggesting AI could have replaced her — remarks that drew significant backlash given Sacco's roughly 20 years of experience in games writing. The row fed into a broader industry conversation about studios' use of AI tools and the job security of writers and other creative staff.

Sacco closed her statement with a line that doubled as a clear signal she considers the matter settled: "God willing, this is the last statement I'll need to make about this." Whether Karch's LinkedIn post — which stops short of a direct public apology and reads more as a lesson in CEO media management — satisfies critics beyond Sacco herself remains to be seen.