New Postal spinoff axed immediately as publisher is "overwhelmed" by gen-AI backlash, but its dev denies the allegations

Running With Scissors has always been happy to cause a stir with its Postal series, but the publisher surely didn't expect to cancel its latest game a mere two days after its reveal. On Wednesday, December 3, Postal Bullet Paradise was unveiled to the world - a Vampire Survivors-inspired shooter, outsourced to developer Goonswarm Games. Under 48 hours later, RWS has now canceled it after becoming "overwhelmed with negative responses" as fans accused the game of being made with generative AI assistance - something Goonswarm denies in a statement sent to PCGamesN.

Postal has seen success in the past with externally developed spinoffs - well-liked boomer shooter Postal Brain Damaged, for example, was co-developed by Hyperstrange and CreativeForge Games. Postal Bullet Paradise was looking to be the next big winner, taking the series down the roguelike survivors route while sticking with the fast-paced action you'd expect from the best FPS games. A solid concept. However, since its reveal, the Postal community has called out what it believes to be AI-generated assets in its debut trailer, and has been making its feelings known.

Following the outcry, Running With Scissors has taken radical action and scrapped Postal Bullet Paradise entirely.

"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," a statement posted to X reads. "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. 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)."

Now, in a statement provided to PCGamesN, Goonswarm Games denies that it used AI in the creation of the trailer or the game.

"No generative AI was used for the reveal trailer or for the game," it says. "All assets were created by our human artists using standard tools. We've already shared layered PSDs, work-in-progress files, and other materials to confirm this. Any mistakes or rough spots in those files are being misinterpreted as 'proof' of AI, but they simply reflect the normal, human art-creation process."

In a later reply to its own statement, Running With Scissors makes a more direct apology to fans, seemingly for comments made by members of the company on Discord following the AI accusations, which have been shared via screenshots on the game's subreddit and on X. RWS also claims to have received death threats amid the wave of criticism for Bullet Paradise.

"We'd like of course to apologize to anyone who felt insulted in the heat of the moment and we thank you for raising concerns at the time," it says. "As for those who specifically sent us death threats, the apology does not apply."

Interestingly, Running With Scissors made its own anti-AI stance known just last week. Responding to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney criticizing AI disclosures on storefronts like Steam, it said: "Customers deserve to know if a game was crafted with creativity, soul and actual talent rather than some machine that craps out anything from a prompt. We don't know what the future holds, but AI apologists like Mr. Sweeney are making this shit unbearable already."

PCGamesN has reached out to Running With Scissors for further comment on Goonswarm's alleged use of generative AI and whether it'll attempt to revive Postal Bullet Paradise in the future.