It is no secret to those paying attention to the video game industry that Saber Interactive’s fortunes have change dramatically in recent years. First surging into prominence with the release of World War Z, it has been thrust into the limelight with big hit Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Using that momentum, it has brought forward new entries in long-dead gaming series like Turok and Stuntman, and remakes of hallowed old games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
In an era marked by long periods of little output from studios between big releases, Saber is putting out multiple releases on the regular, reviving nostalgic classics while it does so. Saber’s confidence seems so high right now, chief creative officer Tim Willits believes, plainly, “We can get any IP.”
As for how the company decides which IP that is ,and what sort of game to make, Willits says Saber doesn’t greenlight any project unless “we can make 4x its cost”. He pointed to Snow Runner, the 2020 driving simulation game in which players drive large vehicles through chilling environments as a prime example of this.
“That was one guy’s idea, made by a couple of guys,” Willits said. “It cost us around six million bucks. It’s gone on to make hundreds of millions. World War Z is another good example. It was made by a relatively small team and 32 million people played that game, and every DLC keeps blowing up and doing well!”
Willits explained that it was all about finding opportunities “where we know we’re going to have hits”. Take the newly announced third-person Jon Wick action game: “You know that’s going to be awesome right?” He said. “Or Stuntman, a smaller game. We acquired the IP from Embracer when we were there, we worked with Universal to bring over franchises people know, to bring more attention to the game. It’s a smaller game than Space Marine 2, but it’s helpful that we have other businesses that are more predictable and manageable, that help fund our big swings like Space Marine 3.”
Willits has been in the industry for a few decades now. Having spent 23 years at Doom and Quake creator id Software, he’s personally played a big part on a few legacy series we’ve not seen in a good while. Back in 1996, he was as a designer on two games-of-interest in particular: Hexen and Strife.
When asked if he would be willing to snatch up these two games, he responded: “Yeah we could get Strife. I could make a phone call or two to get Strife. I could call Asha. The reason you never really saw any more Heretic or Hexen games is because Activision owned the publishing rights, while id Software owned the development rights. They’re all owned by Microsoft now. I’ll call Asha – she doesn’t know who I am, she has me on block,” he joked.
For Willits, the wealth of old franchises sitting in filing cabinets at big companies is a gold mine waiting to be excavated, and he credits Saber’s eagerness for doing this – along with a structure that allows teams to shift around on short notice – as a key factor in the company’s recent success. Other companies could follow Saber’s lead, he believes. “Using Microsoft as an example – I don’t know anything – but it has a ton of IP. It has so many talented people. Let a group of folks work on some old game. Have we seen a MechWarrior game recently? What about Pitfall? Just put 20 guys in a Pitfall game.”
Saber Interactive currently has multiple games in development, including Turok Origins and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, both having a presence at Gamescom. The studio is also working on Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3, though we’ve not heard much about that project since its announcement.
Willits also spoke to Eurogamer at Gamescom about the studio’s approach to generative AI use after some controversy surrounding Rideshare Simulator, another Saber title currently in development. While he said the studio has no widespread AI policy and that Rideshare’s use of it was an “experiment”, he does believe perception around the tech could change. “Somebody will make the Half Life 2 of AI“, he told Eurogamer.
