The studio behind the Postal franchise has just announced that it will be releasing a brand new Postal game developed by Goonswarm Games. Unfortunately, the company just recently announced the cancellation of the said game due to allegations that Goonswarm used generative artificial intelligence in its development. And now Goonswarm is closing.
The game, called Postal: Bullet Paradise, was announced earlier this week on Wednesday along with a promotional trailer and press release. It's supposed to be a “cartoon dystopian first-person shooter” set in the Postal universe, where players can choose from 11 unlockable Postal Dudes from different timelines and, well, shoot people.
However, shortly after the trailer's debut, Postal fans began noting that the game had many distinctive features created using generative AI. When we decided to embed the trailer into this article for you to watch, we were denied access to the video file and the official version was removed from YouTube. You can still watch it on the Steam page here and judge for yourself.
If you go to the Postal subreddit, you can see some reviews. Fans have noted that the pixel sprites' mouths “don't make sense” and elements like shading and pixel placement are somehow disabled. They also note that Goonswarm has almost certainly used generative AI in its games before (close observation this trailer has a number of fairly obvious indicators), so it is possible that this will happen again.
When the allegations first began to surface, both Goonswarm and Running With Scissors denied using generative AI. Like Goonswarm PCGamesN reported in a statement:
Generative AI was not used in the trailer or game. All resources were created by our artists using standard tools. To prove this, we've already shared layered PSD files, work-in-progress files, and more. Any errors or irregularities in these files are misinterpreted as AI “evidence”, but they simply reflect the normal human process of creating art.
Meanwhile, running with scissors initially promised to conduct further investigationstudio co-owner Mike Jerett angered the Postal audience even more not only vehemently denying the presence of generative AI in the game, but also using some pretty harsh language against the accusers, calling them “ignorant assholes” and telling anyone who thinks the game uses generative AI to “sorry on our Discord.”
But finally, today the publisher has taken a clear position. Running With Scissors announced they were canceling the game entirely, saying that audience feedback had caused “extreme damage to our brand and our company's reputation” and that they no longer trusted the development team.
Here's the Running with Scissors statement in full:
Following the reveal of Postal: Bullet Paradise, a Running With Scissors game that was planned to be published but not developed, we were inundated with negative feedback from our engaged post community. In their opinion, the elements of the game were most likely created by artificial intelligence and thus caused enormous damage to our brand and the reputation of our company.
We have always been and will always be transparent with our community. Our trust in the development team has been undermined; so we closed the project. There are many good things to come (some you know, some you don't).
Since the formation of Running With Scissors in 1996, we have always said that our fans are part of the team. Our priority is to always do right by the millions of people who support the Postal franchise. We're grateful for the opportunity to create 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!
Fan feedback in response to this seems to be generally positive. several people suggest they were excited about the game idea and hoped it could be passed on to another developer. Some are still hoping for an apology from Jereth for his comments towards the community, but that hasn't happened yet.
But there is a group of people who are unhappy, and that is Goonswarm. In a statement posted on Twitter, the studio announced that it would closes due to game cancellation. Here is their statement in full:
Our project and everything we had built in six years was canceled in just a few days.
Our studio was wrongly accused of using AI-generated graphics in our games, and every attempt to clarify our work only made the situation worse. Over the past few hours we have received a large number of threats, insults and bullying, which has pushed us to a very difficult decision.
We sincerely feel sorry for the artists who put their hearts into this and supported our studio, but were faced with false accusations against the AI. It's hard to put so much energy into a game and accidentally end up in the middle of an AI war.
We have decided to close the studio and cease all future activities.
Thank you for being with us. Be strong, play games.
This isn't the first time Postal games, which are essentially about various guys committing mass shootings, have become the subject of controversy. The last main game is Postal 4: NoRegerts, released in 2022. rare 2 out of 10 from us. Our reviewer said that “the comedy is lazy and confusing, the combat is messy and painfully unsatisfying, and it runs so poorly on high-end hardware that it's unlikely to appeal at all, even to those just hoping for some campy shock humor.” Running With Scissors has also released several spin-offs in recent years, such as CreativeForge Games' Postal: Brain Damaged in 2022 and 2023's April Fool's Joke in POOSTALL Royale.
Rebecca Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. Have a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
