Update 5th December: Postal: Bullet Paradise developers Goonswarm have fiercely denied the accusations that they used generative AI to create elements 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.
Original story continues below:
Postal developers Running With Scissors have revealed… and now cancelled Postal: Bullet Paradise, a spin-off shooter created by Goonswarm Studios. It seems Bullet Paradise may have featured some AI-generated material, which has prompted an evidently massive backlash among the Postal faithful in the literal two whole days since the project’s announcement. Gosh.
“After revealing POSTAL: Bullet Paradise, a title Running With Scissors was planning on publishing but not developing, we’ve been overwhelmed with negative responses from our concerned POSTAL Community,” reads a statement from Running With Scissors founder Vince Desi, emailed to RPS this afternoon. “The strong feedback from them is that elements of the game are very likely AI-generated and thus has caused extreme damage to our brand and our company reputation.
“We’ve always been, and will always be, transparent with our community,” Desi continues. “Our trust in the development team is broken; therefore, we’ve killed the project. We have a lot of good things coming (some you know and some you don’t).
“Since forming Running With Scissors in 1996, we’ve always said that our fans are part of the team,” it concludes. “Our priority is to always do right by the millions who support the POSTAL franchise. We are grateful for the opportunity to make the games we want to play, and will continue to focus on our new projects and updates coming in 2026 and beyond. We can’t wait to share more!”
Postal: Bullet Paradise was once “a timeline-hopping, dystopian bullet heaven first-person shooter with POSTAL’s signature darkly humorous personality”. The project is “no longer available” on Steam, though it still has a page as of writing.
Desi’s statement doesn’t mention which elements of the game may have been AI-generated, or whether they’ve taken any steps to confirm this with Goonswarm. I’ve mailed the devs to ask for comment. Their previous games include Sin Slayers: Meat & Greed and SCP: Control Error.
Assuming this is a case of generative AI, it would be the first time to my knowledge that a publisher has canned a whole game following blowback on the subject from players. Publishers have apologised for games having generated AI elements – see 11 Bit’s response to controversy over The Alters – and taken steps to replace them – see Ubisoft and Anno 117: Pax Romana – but yoinking the whole thing from development is quite the escalation. I’ll update if we learn more.
