Easy Fox, the studio behind the upcoming driving simulator Teach My Little Sister How To Drive, have revealed that they might pull the plug on the game’s Steam demo sooner than expected. This decision comes in the wake of unexpectedly high player engagement, which has driven the operational costs for the demo past $1,000 daily (as noted by Game*Spark).
The premise of Teach My Little Sister How To Drive involves players being stuck in the passenger seat of a car, tasked with coaching their novice sister on driving, parking, and maneuvering obstacles—all through voice commands. The game leverages generative AI to facilitate real-time conversations, with the sister responding to player input both verbally and through in-car actions like accelerating or braking.
The demo, which has been available since February, recently saw a surge in popularity, particularly among gaming streamers in Japan. The game’s chaotic AI interactions and the sister’s surprisingly sharp wit have been major draws.
In an update dated October 7, Easy Fox disclosed that demo player numbers have skyrocketed by more than twenty times over the past month, leading to significant challenges. Teach My Little Sister How To Drive relies on external AI services like Gemini and ChatGPT to process player voices and generate in-game responses. With traffic through the roof, the token usage costs have ballooned to over $1,000 a day. The small four-member team has even resorted to a bank loan to keep the demo operational. While no final call has been made, the developers are contemplating shutting down the demo ahead of schedule due to the mounting expenses.
Looking ahead, Easy Fox is exploring the use of local AI models as an alternative option for the full game, alongside potential price adjustments to offset anticipated AI-related costs.