The Whole Story Behind the Tales' Building Games with AI Scam

In October 2024, a press release was circulated about a new company based in Palo Alto, California. Said company had the super unique name, Tales (sometimes Tales World), and it was announcing a new AI product which could create entire videogames from a few words.

Absolute rubbish, I hear you cry! Or, if you’re easily led and aren’t entirely certain whether the gas light is on or not, you might be totally on board. Well, Tales banked on the latter, as it claimed these entire game worlds could be produced in seconds!

Using something they called a Large World Model by the name of Sia, it was going to be trained on gameplay data, video content, assets, and feedback over time. If you wanted to work with it, you’d be able to submit your own data as part of “a rewards-based incentive system”. Then, with a simple seven-word sentence, it would generate an immediately playable game for you, which you could then customise.

You can find out what sorts of games they had in mind by watching their three-minute explainer video, which uses footage from The Last of Us Part II and Cyberpunk 2077, to trick you into thinking that Tales had a part to play in developing them. It all looks too good to be true… because it is.

“A lack of resources should never get in the way of a creative spark”, said Jason Krupat, Head of Product. “Why can’t we take on the largest competitors in the industry by working together with gamers?”, added Viktor Uzunov, Head of Community. Because you were scamming investors, guys; that’s why you couldn’t, and why “creative spark” isn’t enough.

A quick look at the Tales World’s LinkedIn page shows that nobody works there. Tales was supposed to launch in November 2024. The 22 times Boosted Discord server appears to have no admin, but that’s because the server hides offline members (over 2,700), and they haven’t been online since the 29th of October 2024.

The X/Twitter account no longer exists. The Telegram account has been deleted. The TikTok account only has the one-minute-long teaser. The Twitch was never used. The Medium has a single blank post dated two weeks before the press release went out. The YouTube only has the teaser and explainer videos. The subreddit is now banned. The company website is for sale for $5,300 from GoDaddy…

In fact, let’s go back to those two names associated with Tales: Jason Krupat (seen in the video) lists seven jobs on his LinkedIn profile, none of which were Tales. In 2024, he co-founded Cheddr, a sports betting website, which he is still listed as working at — but it hasn’t launched as of August 2025. Before that, he co-founded a web3 gambling website, which is actually still running, and oversaw the launch of an NFT. Oh, and he says in his personal About field that he holds four AI patents.

So, why pretend you didn’t try to launch Tales? I can understand altering your photo so that you appear to have no grey hair, but ignoring a product push that you were the face of? A face full of grey hair, but again, who hasn’t altered their profile photo? Mine is an actual drawing I paid someone to make.

Now, how about Viktor Uzunov, Head of Community? Chief Executive Officer of his (now defunct) self-named consultancy firm before moving into crypto trading, and according to a piece on CEO Today (written by himself), he has a passion for NFTs — always a positive sign of someone not after your money.

I didn’t start writing this as a hit piece against the two frontmen for a scam company, honestly. But as with problematic Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, people need to know who they’re dealing with.

So, Tales went away within a single month. The Wayback Machine shows that it was live in October 2024, for the press release to go out, but by February 2025, it was gone. For whatever reason, no result before October 2024 works, either.

The website has a roadmap, saying that Phase 1 would be completed in 2—3 months. Assuming that the time estimates were non-concurrent, they would reach Phase 8 (V1 product launch) in as little as 24 months. Judging by the “screenshots” they provided (10 available in four different aspect ratios), I’d say it needed the development time, since any text is just garbled lines.

I’m sure that you’ve finished a videogame or two in your time, so you’ve no doubt seen the credits. A list of the names of the people involved in making the entertainment you just enjoyed. Bigger games have longer credits, if you’ve ever sat through the 30 minutes or more at the end of an Ubisoft title.

Tales was spinning the yarn that the work that 500—1,000 people put into a 60-hour game could be completed by telling ChatGPT “make a first-person shooter in space”. One of the pinned posts in the Discord is a meme about making Grand Theft Auto VI before Rockstar could. What did Tales get out of this whole endeavour? Well, with investment in AI having inflated like a bubble, they clearly wanted to get in and out before it burst, because even with stealing real people’s hard work, AI can’t make games.