Following the huge success of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2’s launch, developer Saber Interactive is already talking about how it’s going to continue Titus’ story from here—and its long-term commitment to the series.
In an interview with IGN, the company’s chief creative officer Tim Willits (formerly of Id Software) revealed that game director Dmitry Grigorenko “has proposed some story ideas that could either be DLC or a sequel”. Nothing’s set in stone, yet—”We’re literally just catching our breath,” says Willits—but after selling two million copies and counting, and hitting over 200,000 concurrent players on release, the team is hoping to commit to the series long-term.
“I can confidently say that we will not disappoint our Warhammer fans in the future,” says Willits. “It’s too big of a success! I know that’s an obvious thing to say, but hopefully we’ll be working on Space Marine content for a long time.”
Final say on Space Marine’s future lies, of course, with Games Workshop, as well as publisher Focus Home Interactive—but I think it’s fair to say both companies like money, so a continued partnership seems likely in the face of such results.
It’s a big moment for a relatively small developer like Saber Interactive. Having such a big hit on its hands “changes everything” and allows the studio to “dream bigger”—in other words, making more ambitious, bigger budget games.
“When you have a big hit and you have that internet [sic] kind of popularity, there’s more passion and there’s more responsibility for the quality that you do,” says Willits. “And you look at yourself through a different lens. And sometimes that success lens can be a little dangerous because then you get so paranoid about making sure everything is great that you overstress about things, but it’s that success lens that really drives amazing games into the future. So I do believe that through the success lens that we have, we will just make far better products in the future.”
In the meantime, the game already has a robust post-launch roadmap for its co-op Operations and PvP Eternal War modes. Willits cites that approach as one of the “key reasons” for the success of the studio’s previous co-op shooter World War Z—five years on from launch, that game’s still receiving new updates, so Space Marine 2 could well have a very long tail on it to come.
Though I have mixed feelings about Space Marine 2 myself (and haven’t been impressed by some pretty tired rhetoric seeming to come from Saber Interactive’s CEO recently), I’m certainly still interested to see more from the series. It’s wonderful to see Warhammer get to be this big and exciting in videogames, and as I noted in my review, even though I found Space Marine 2’s action messy, its depiction of the 40k universe is brilliantly impressive. Saber’s passion for the setting shone through clearly, and I loved seeing it rendered in such visual splendor.
I’d be surprised as well if this doesn’t get other publishers taking Warhammer a little more seriously than perhaps they have in the past. Space Marine 2 has proven that you can have serious mainstream success with the franchise—it can be more than just the home of niche strategy games. Let’s hope this is a shot in the arm not just for Saber Interactive, but for Games Workshop videogames in general. Who wouldn’t love to see more expansive and ambitious experiences in the worlds of Warhammer in the future?