Oh dear. Goonswarm Games are shutting down after Running With Scissors cancelled POSTAL: Bullet Paradise due to the use of generative AI. It’s a bit of a saga this one.
I covered the initial announcement, along with a follow-up update in there where Running With Scissors attempted to defend the developer. The backlash only continued, and eventually RWS cancelled it as per the statement GamingOnLinux was sent on December 5th via Vince Desi, founder of Running With Scissors
Solid apology imo
I had trouble reading the image so here’s the text if you’re like me:
Dear gamers, we want to start with a sincere apology to everyone affected by this situation: the community, our partners, and especially the artists who supported us. The last few days have been overwhelming. As a small studio, suddenly pushed into the spotlight, we reacted emotionally and defensively. The accusations came as a shock, and we needed time to breathe, look at everything calmly, and understand what truly happened. After taking that time and conducting an internal review, we agree with your criticism. The promo art does appear to include or be influenced by Al-generated material. We collaborated with external artists for years and never saw any signs of this. The layered PSDS always looked legitimate within our internal pipeline, which is why our initial reaction was to protect our team and defend our innocence. We understand now that your concerns were valid. And we take responsibility for not catching this earlier. We also want to stress that this issue relates only to the promo art and does not concern the real artists who worked on gameplay visuals, assets, and other content. Many of them have nothing to do with this situation, yet they have been receiving threats, harassment, and hatred. This is deeply unfair, and we hope this message helps protect them. Their work is real, and it deserves respect. We previously announced the closure of the studio, but even in this state we feel responsible for the outcome. As far as our remaining resources allow, we will replace all disputed promo art across our projects with pieces created entirely by human artists. It will take time, but we will do it. We again apologise to everyone who was harmed or affected by this situation. We never intended to mislead anyone, and our earlier statements reflected what we honestly believed at the moment.
Totally reasonable thought process on their side. Sucks that it had to come to this.
Still don’t understand the shutdown? Remove the marketing material and move on if it’s such a problem?
Their publisher pulled the plug on the game they were making due to the accusations, so they probably can’t afford to stay open.
I had a feeling about this game, and it seems that came true.
The enemies all being feminists felt… “off”, especially when Postal isn’t a right wing series, it’s more about poking fun at society in general… So it just seemed odd that ALL of the enemies in Bullet Paradise were Feminist Stereotypes.
My takeaway from these games being cancelled and studios shutdown over ai bs is that they dont actually have a viable product and are using ai to convince people they do. In this case they faked having a game to secure money and failed and had to close down. I dont feel bad about it at all.
Goonswarm Games
the clue was in the name of the company… they’re obviously full of shit
Goons ruin everything
Glad I am not the only one who thought that upon seeing the company’s name.
How do you define a witch hunt? Kings of the AI creates mobs through tiktok, facebook thanks to AI social engineering… so the mob hunt the random guys for their own guilts (as “king of the AI’s guilt”).
