Saber Interactive’s Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 2 has been a massive success. Not only has the game become the best-selling 40K game of all time, but it’s caused a boom in sales to other products in Games Workshop’s grim-dark universe.
But there’s an alternate timeline where Space Marine 2 didn’t work out. Originally set to release at the end of 2023, Saber Interactive ended up delaying the third-person action game to late 2024 and, in the words of Saber executive Tim Willits, it was the “smartest thing” they ever did.
Speaking to IGN ahead of the game’s anniversary, Willits discussed the delay of the Warhammer 40,000 game as its second year of free post-launch content starts across PC, Xbox Series and PS5.
“With Space Marine 2, if you remember, we actually delayed that,” the Saber boss said. “It was f***ing worth it! And that was the smartest thing we ever did.”
In response to the game’s huge success for Saber, the studio has greenlit new games left, right and centre, including the upcoming Space Marine 3. Part of this success, Willits notes, is the fact that the game was not available on any subscription service like Xbox Game Pass, and the team charged the exact right price for it.
“It has not been on any streaming service,” he explained. “You want to play it, you got to buy it. And it’s just rocking and rolling. And it wasn’t overpriced. It wasn’t overscoped. It wasn’t over-designed.”
Since launch, the team behind the game has released a number of free operations, game modes, weapons and more. Willits explained that the team learned from the best ways to keep a game alive via their World War Z game, and post-launch content was already in the works before release. With the second year of content in the way, the executive explained that the team is just that passionate about creating Warhammer 40,000 content.
“Can you name any giant AAA games that release free modes within months after the game?” Willits asked the outlet. “The team is passionate about it. They’re super Space Marine nerds, and fan appetite for it is over the top.”
There’s still no release date for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3, but there’s a slew of other exciting 40K games on the way. RTS fans have the brilliant-looking Dawn of War 4 to look forward to, although series protagonist Gabriel Angelos is sadly absent from the upcoming sequel.