Postal: Bullet Paradise developers Goonswarm have fiercely denied the accusations that they used generative AI to create elements of the game… and announced that they are closing down.
In a post on Xitter, sent to RPS after we requested comment on the story below, the developers write that “our studio was mistakenly accused of using AI-generated art in our games, and every attempt to clarify our work only escalated the situation”. They say they’ve received a lot of insults and threats as a consequence.
“We’re truly sorry for the artists who put their soul into this and supported our studio, only to face false AI accusation,” the statement continues. “It’s tough to pour so much energy into a game and end up caught in the middle of an AI war by accident. We’ve decided to shut down the studio and end all future activities.”
The statement doesn’t mention the obvious financial impact of having a publisher cancel your videogame project. I’ll ask for more clarification.
Just to clarify a little bit (I was a little confused myself):
Postal was developed by the studio Goonswarm. The publisher Running With Scissors cancelled their games release because of the AI claims, and in response the developers have closed their studio, probably due to the financial strain of having your game completely cancelled by your publisher.
It seems like the publisher hasn’t done much to work with the devs, finding the true story instead of reacting to knee-jerk public opinions, and has just pulled the rug out from under them to protect themselves instead.
The devs have adamantly insisted there is no AI in their work; and if true, this really really sucks.
This really comes off as a knee-jerk reaction by RWS. I get they’ve been burned in the past by shit like Postal 3, and Postal is about all they have, but this should have been handled much better.
Delay things, verify there is no generative AI used, at worst replace assets that are deemed questionable.
I agree, I thought the same thing.
RWS saying they “don’t trust the developers” anymore is a bizarre thing to talk about in public so quickly.
If I were a part of the development team I’d be thinking “ok, don’t ever work with a company with a name like ‘running with scissors’ ever again,” they don’t make good decisions.
Maybe they already knew about the AI content and was waiting to see what the public feedback was like?
Even in that case, they were quick to cut ties and not mention it to the public in the announcement, which doesn’t make them look any better.
I say this as a long time Postal fan girl, I can ever get a slight kick out of 3 as terrible as it is. Either way, RWS doesn’t look good right now. They were either aware of generative AI being used and refused to declare it, or they decided a bit of public backlash was worth tanking a studio over without verification.
they could also have not liked the way that the project was going and just used this as an excuse to fire the developer. not defending RWS, as it looks pretty shitty with the little context that we have
Publisher’s reaction looks like corporate bullshit to me to be honest.