New ‘Postal’ Game Canceled One Day After Reveal, Following Generative AI Allegations

Working With Scissors, writer of the controversial shooter recreation franchise Postal, mentioned this week that it had canceled a newly revealed sequence entry in the future after asserting it, responding to backlash after followers mentioned the reveal trailer appeared to make use of AI-generated paintings.

The sport, Portal: Bullet Paradise, was a fast-paced first-person shooter spinoff developed externally by Goonswarm Video games. The backlash occurred simply days after Working With Scissors railed towards generative AI utilization in gaming, taking a stand towards AI in inventive work.

The writer mentioned it ended the venture as a result of its belief within the growth group had damaged down, including that it aimed to stay clear with its neighborhood and nonetheless had a number of upcoming initiatives within the pipeline.

“We have been overwhelmed with unfavourable responses from our involved Postal neighborhood,” the corporate wrote on X. “The robust suggestions from them is that parts of the sport are very possible AI-generated, and thus has precipitated excessive injury to our model and our firm repute.”

The backlash towards Postal: Bullet Paradise intensified after followers dissected the December 3 trailer and flagged particulars they argued had been produced by AI instruments. Late final month, Working With Scissors mentioned on X that clients ought to know if a recreation was created utilizing AI.

“Clients should know if a recreation was crafted with creativity, soul and precise expertise moderately than some machine that craps out something from a immediate,” they wrote.

Frustration from avid gamers escalated when firm representatives defended the trailer on X and in Discord whereas insulting critics. Screenshots present firm reps utilizing expletives and slurs when responding to allegations.

As the pictures unfold, Working With Scissors issued a separate X message addressing the conduct.



“We would like, after all, to apologize to anybody who felt insulted within the warmth of the second, and we thanks for elevating issues on the time,” they mentioned in an added submit. “As for many who particularly despatched us dying threats, the apology doesn’t apply.”

Working with Scissors didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark by Decrypt.

The Postal franchise started in 1997 and shortly grew to become recognized for darkish humor, confrontational satire, and graphic violence. The franchise takes its title from the time period “going postal,” which initially referred to a sequence of office shootings by U.S. postal staff within the Nineteen Nineties, and it later grew to become slang for sudden, violent outbursts or capturing sprees extra usually.

A number of international locations, together with Australia, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, Sweden, and France, banned entries within the sequence for its intense violence, graphic content material, animal cruelty, and offensive themes. The property later impressed a extensively panned 2007 live-action movie directed by Uwe Boll.

The corporate mentioned it could shift its consideration to initiatives deliberate for 2026, and reiterated that threats towards employees can be reported. The studio has not mentioned whether or not Postal: Bullet Paradise may return in one other type, and the expertise has prompted renewed scrutiny of how builders and publishers disclose using AI in recreation manufacturing.

“Since forming Working With Scissors in 1996, we’ve all the time mentioned that our followers are a part of the group. Our precedence is to all the time do proper by the thousands and thousands who assist the Postal franchise,” they wrote. “We’re grateful for the chance to make the video games we wish to play, and can proceed to deal with our new initiatives and updates coming in 2026 and past.”

Following the backlash, Goonswarm Video games introduced on Friday that the studio would shut down and stop operations.

“Our venture, and all the things we constructed over the previous six years, was canceled in only a few days,” it wrote in a press release. 

“Our studio was mistakenly accused of utilizing AI-generated artwork in our video games, and each try to make clear our work solely escalated the state of affairs,” they mentioned, including that the corporate has acquired a “giant variety of threats, insults, and mockery.”

Main recreation publishers, together with Ubisoft, CD Projekt Pink, Sq. Enix, and Activision, have expanded their use of generative AI in recent times, adopting the expertise for in-game asset creation, inner testing, moderation, and efforts to hurry up growth pipelines.

Builders have confronted rising pushback from gamers who argue that AI-generated artwork can look inconsistent, depend on copyrighted coaching knowledge, or substitute work usually executed by human artists. These issues have surfaced throughout studios experimenting with automated instruments, no matter venture measurement.

The broader business can be grappling with labor pressures. To date in 2025, greater than 3,500 jobs have been reduce throughout recreation studios, in keeping with monitoring website Gaming Layoffs, fueling worries that automation will additional cut back alternatives for artists and different early-career builders. Almost 15,000 recreation business jobs had been reduce in 2024.

“We’re really sorry for the artists who put their soul into this and supported our studio, solely to face false AI accusations,” Goonswarm wrote. “It’s powerful to pour a lot vitality right into a recreation and find yourself caught up in the course of an AI struggle accidentally.”