John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando’s launch came in below publisher Focus Entertainment’s expectations, but for Saber Interactive it was successful in commercial terms — and according to development chief Tim Willits, the tech work done for it will go on to benefit the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3.
Toxic Commando builds upon Saber’s proprietary tech to present a zombie swarm for co-op players to gun down. It’s technology used for Saber’s World War Z, for the Tyranids in Space Marine 2, and will once again be utilized for the upcoming Space Marine 3.
In its recent financial report, Focus owner Pullup issued a somewhat downbeat note on Toxic Commander, which came out in March. But in an interview with IGN at gamescom, Saber’s Tim Willits was more positive, confirming it was a profitable project for the company.
“We’re really happy with it,” he began. “Focus’ opinion, they’re a publicly traded company, so they have to say what they have to say. We’ll leave that to them. But for us, we’re really excited about it. We have some new stuff coming out. We actually have a good playerbase.
“It brought more people into the Saber universe. When I say Saber universe, it’s people that fall in love with one game who now start to look at us, like Space Marine 2 with our 14 million players. It’s f***ing ridiculous. Just a few! And then World War Z, remember that’s 30 million people that played that game. It’s nuts. More people played that game than saw the movie or read the book.”
Willits went on to say that the tech improvements made for Toxic Commander will be further improved for Space Marine 3. Indeed, you can trace a line from World War Z through Space Marine 2 and Toxic Commando right to Space Marine 3.
“[Toxic] was a well-made game that was fun to play, and it shows people what we do really well,” Willits said. “It shows people that Saber games are enjoyable to experience with your friends. It’s over-the-top. It built on our technology. You’ll see more of that in Space Marine 3. You can see the progression with our technology moves. I feel that it was a good brick in that Saber wall.
“We’re growing the company, we’re growing the project, we’re growing the technology. It was profitable for us. We don’t lose money. We don’t lose money on anything.”
I asked Willits how Toxic Commando’s tech will be improved for Space Marine 3, and while he kept his cards close to his chest on actual game features, he did hint at an expanded scope.
“It’s the maturity of the technology,” he said. “You can see the bigger swarms, you can see the bigger areas, you can see the better AI. There’s cars — you didn’t have cars in Space Marine 2. I’m not saying we’re going to have cars in Space Marine 3. I’m just saying the technology is growing and developing and that’s our technology. So we can focus on technology pillars that will support our future games like Space Marine 3 and Jurassic Park — that uses the same technology.”
One of the big questions for Space Marine fans is how Saber will expand upon the gameplay. Space Marine 2 limits squads to three characters (modders increased this), and while some of the play spaces are big, there’s nothing you’d describe as having any sort of open world design. Willits has talked about three being the magic number for Space Marine 2 because of the maximum number of enemies it’s able to throw at squads — having four Space Marines, say, would make the game too easy and “scaling enemy assaults to justify bringing a fourth player was too great of a challenge.”
But could Space Marine 3 up the player count by upping the enemy count and playspace? Could it increase the scope of the battles, which in Space Marine 2 are limited in terms of area and units? Willits says he’s not saying Space Marine 3 will have cars, but it does beg the question: will Space Marine 3 have vehicles? A Land Raider, perhaps? Maybe some flying missions in a Gunship?
As for Saber’s swarm tech, I’m not sure repeating the trick with Tyranids will be enough for Space Marine 3 after fans spent so much time with them in Space Marine 2. Most believe Space Marine 3 will feature the Necrons, based on hints sprinkled throughout Space Marine 2. But what other factions would fit the bill? A return to the Orks seen in Space Marine 1? (Orks are the primary antagonist of the 11th edition of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game.) How about a focus on the relentless Death Guard and swarms of shuffling Plaguebearers? Saber has form when it comes to zombies after all.
As for how Space Marine 3 development is going, Willits was very enthusiastic, but again didn’t give much away. Speaking of how well Space Marine 2 had gone (he previously told IGN its success had changed everything for Saber), Willits said the development team was now working to top it.
“The Emperor loves us. We are The Emperor’s favorite,” Willits joked. “All I can say is 3’s going great. 2’s been really successful. Our DLC’s been super successful. People love the mods. It helps the team with experience, knowing what fans actually want, making sure that we adhere to the true Warhammer 40K universe franchise.
“The success of Space Marine 2 has really made the team passionate about making sure that Space Marine 3 is even better. They feel that there’s this confidence and passion and vigor, and you can see it. When you talk to the team, they’re just in it. So I’m really excited about that.”
Willits recently told IGN that no generative AI was being used in the development of Space Marine 3, after a backlash online to its use in Saber’s Rideshare Stimulator. Space Marine 3 currently does not have a release window.
