Postal: Bullet Paradise has been cancelled by publishers Running With Scissors over claims that devs Goonswarm have used generative AI tools.

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.

  • calliope@retrolemmy.com
    3·
    1 day ago

    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.

    • fistac0rpse@fedia.io
      1·
      1 day ago

      Maybe they already knew about the AI content and was waiting to see what the public feedback was like?

      • Rose Thorne(She/Her)@lemmy.zip
        3·
        1 day ago

        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.

        • fistac0rpse@fedia.io
          3·
          1 day ago

          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