Overview
- Saber CEO Matt Karch confirmed on Tuesday that the studio’s recent trailer for Rideshare Stimulator intentionally targeted Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford in response to perceived jabs at Embracer.
- The trailer includes a Texas license plate reading “USB DRV,” a narrator line about the “randiest” passengers, and a character asking to go to a medieval feast, details journalists linked to Pitchford’s 2018 Medieval Times USB story.
- Karch said the jab was motivated by Borderlands 4 content that he and others read as mocking Embracer, citing an in-game location called “Embracer’s Bluff” that portrays a rundown town.
- Pitchford’s 2018 USB incident led to competing lawsuits that were settled and reported as resolved by 2019, a legal history that makes the reference notable but has not produced new legal action over the trailer.
- Both studios were once owned by Embracer before being sold during the company’s restructuring, and this exchange underlines a growing industry pattern of developers using games and promos to settle personal and corporate grievances with public PR consequences.