Saber Interactive’s upcoming rideshare game, Rideshare Stimulator—deliberately spelled with “Stimulator”—has attracted attention for a brief licence-plate gag aimed at Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford.
The game appears to combine the chaotic driving of Crazy Taxi with a more grounded taxi simulation, alongside deliberately strange humour. The trailer’s most pointed moment arrives at roughly the 63-second mark, when an SUV displays a Texas plate reading “USB”, followed by a gear symbol and “DRV”.
That combination appears designed to reference a long-running story involving Pitchford. Gearbox is based in Texas, while the USB reference points to an incident in 2018, when Pitchford reportedly left a drive at a Medieval Times restaurant. The drive was said to contain a video he described as “barely legal porn” featuring a woman who was “only 18”.
The incident became part of a lawsuit brought against Gearbox by the company’s former lawyer. That case was settled in 2019, but the USB story has continued to circulate online.
As recently reported by Game File, Matt Karch, Saber’s CEO, said the trailer’s plate is a deliberate reference. He sees it as payback for what he regards as a jab at Saber and its former corporate parent, Embracer, in Borderlands 4.
That game includes a bleak location called “Embracer’s Bluff”, depicted as a rubbish-filled area. Karch interpreted the setting as a criticism of Embracer, a company widely disliked within parts of the games industry but defended by the Saber executive.
“The dig is because Randy took shots at Embracer in Borderlands 4,” Karch said. “Without Embracer, Randy is performing magic tricks at birthday parties for a living.”
And in 2018, Pitchford found himself in hot water after the USB-drive incident became public. The lawsuit was settled in 2019.
Gearbox declined to comment on the trailer. Take-Two and Gearbox have not confirmed that “Embracer’s Bluff” was intended as a reference to the publisher.
Why Saber and Gearbox were connected
Embracer expanded rapidly by acquiring multiple studios, including Saber in 2020 and Gearbox in 2021. After a major deal collapsed in late 2023 and the company’s wider strategy began to unravel, both studios were sold. For a time, however, Saber and Gearbox were part of the same corporate group.
Pitchford has since criticised Gearbox’s former parent company publicly. He also said the all-powerful villain controlling a planet in Borderlands 4 was inspired by the studio’s time under Embracer.
Karch’s response suggests the exchange is now continuing through game-world jokes and trailer details. Whether players see “Embracer’s Bluff” as a serious corporate reference or simply a throwaway gag, Saber’s licence plate makes the rivalry difficult to miss.
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