Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has been a great success for developer Saber Interactive, but the company’s chief creative officer says losing focus on “what actually makes the game fun” may be part of why other AAA developers sometimes miss the mark with their own releases.
In an interview with IGN, Saber’s CCO Tim Willits says, “A lot of teams throughout development will over-scope games.” With Space Marine 2, he says, the team didn’t implement “some revolutionary new gameplay mechanic that no one’s ever seen before” but rather chose to “execute really, really well” on things that fans are familiar with. Not doing this, and instead looking at other games before deciding “‘oh, we got to do that, let’s add this, we got to do this'” can be an issue, he suggests, as developers can “lose focus on the core, what actually makes the game fun.”
Willits also points to increased development costs, which can be a major problem for studios since games may be given enormous sales expectations based on their massive budgets. Space Marine 2 was developed “affordably,” Willits says, noting that “We don’t need to sell four million units to make it [Space Marine 2] a success.” However, that’s not always the case for everyone.
“There are many games, sadly, especially out of North American developers, where if you do not sell five million copies, you are a failure,” Willits says. “I mean, what business are we in where you fail if you sell less than five million?”
Willits continues, noting that “we do not want to be that business,” but rather a developer that focuses on “what makes the games actually fun, and then do it really well and then make it affordably.” It’s a noble aim, and based on how well Space Marine 2 is doing so far, is clearly working out for Saber Interactive.
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