Saber Interactive’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is the most successful 40K game of all time, by a rather significant margin. Right now, the team is working on additional content for the game with new Operations in the works, as well as early development on Space Marine 3 which will release “years” in the future.
While Space Marine 2 is a brilliant game to play, itss core design only exists due to the fact that developer Saber Interactive already had access to the game’s powerful crowd technology from the development of World War Z.
Built on the studio’s Swarm Engine, Space Marine 2 uses an upgraded version of World War Z’s crowd technology and its powerful AI director to power its dastardly hordes of Tyranids. While Saber was already gearing up to create the long-awaited sequel, the decision to use the Xenos foes was directly tied to its existing technology.
“Given the success of World War Z, when the team started to work on Space Marine 2, it was just a natural kind of marriage,” Saber Interactive CCO Tim Willits told EDGE Magazine in its latest issue. Willits recalled the team looking at the wide array of enemies they could use in the 40K universe, and settled on Tyranids simply because they would fit the studio’s home-grown engine.
“’This is a really cool technology – let’s look at all the different creatures and characters in the Warhammer 40,000 universe’. Like, ‘Can you imagine doing with Tyranids what we did for zombies?’ That was basically the conversation and the genesis of using those enemy types with that game,” Willits recalled.
While this technology was purpose-built for World War Z, it became a natural marriage for Space Marine 2’s design. Willits didn’t explain what other enemies were dreamt up for the third-person shooter—although the game does also feature the return of Thousand Sons Chaos forces as well as Tyranids—but it’s clear that the choice to opt for Tyranids worked wonders for the game.
While Saber continues work on Space Marine 2, many are wondering just what enemy types the eventual sequel will introduce. Spoilers ahead, the finale of Saber’s last campaign indicated that players may be able to battle Necron forces in a follow-up, although a large number of fans have also called for the return of the original game’s Ork enemies.
Whatever the case, there is currently no proposed release date for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 at the time of writing, and Saber has promised even more content for the second game. Additionally, there’s a growing number of additional 40K games in development, including Dawn of War 4 and Total War: Warhammer 40,000.
