Despite Space Marine 2 Success, Saber Won’t Repeat Xbox’s Greatest Mistake That Caused Incredible Backlash

Currently, the talk of the town is Saber Interactive’s Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2. With only a brief amount of time since its release, this third-person hack-and-slash shooter has amassed an enormous user base. Space Marine (2011), which debuted more than ten years ago, is directly followed by this game.

Right now, the gaming industry is in a bit of turmoil. Games prices are going higher, development studios are being shut down, and companies have to lay off a chunk of their employees to stay in the market. Xbox is one of them that had to take cost-cutting measures like this. However, Saber is not going to follow the path of Microsoft’s console company.

Saber Interactive Is Very Smart with Its Money

Amidst this volatile situation, Saber Interactive stayed sharp and surfaced a brilliant title like Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, that too without taking any cost-cutting measures. So, how did they do so when other North American companies are succumbing? Let’s hear the answer from the Chief Creative Officer of Saber, Tim Willits himself (via WCCF TECH):

I have seen all the cycles. I started in 1995, and I remember the death of consoles; I remember the death of the PC. I remember that, yes, there are always cycles, but good games and good teams will always be successful. One of the things that Saber has done well is that we have studios around the world and we focus on the right scopes for our games. We focus on the right deal for our games. Each of our studios has multiple projects, so we don’t have 200 people sitting around waiting for pre-production to finish. We’re very smart with our money, and we focus on the core aspects of the game. We focus on what’s truly fun, whether it’s a $5 million game, $10 million game, or $50 million; it doesn’t matter.

Seeing the statement from Willits, it seems he is very confident in his team. And this confidence comes from the experience he has gathered since joining in 1995. The main mantra of this company is to focus on multiple projects at a time, simultaneously.

Hence, if a particular project fails,  there will still be other projects to compensate for that loss. Despite Saber’s huge success, other North American developing companies are struggling a lot. For them, there is one mantra from Willits: “Focus on the core aspects of the game.”

What Were the Mistakes of Xbox?

2024 is not going pretty well for Microsoft (or just say Xbox) at all. This long-hailed console company has been reigning the console market along with its arch-rivals, but right now things are not going pretty well in the company.

In May this year, the company had to shut down four of its highly successful development studios: Tango Gameworks, Arcane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios. All these studios were a part of ZeniMax Media, which is again a subsidiary company of Xbox Game Studios.

Things didn’t go too well for the company even after that, as it is going to lay off 650 employees again. This marks the third wave of its layoff this year, as it aims to control expenses and integrate its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In January, Microsoft said that it would let go of 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox.

What’s your opinion on Willits’ statement and Xbox’s huge mistakes? Let us know your views in the comment section.