Saber Interactive, a studio behind hits like World War Z and the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, has found considerable success in reviving dormant gaming franchises. The company's chief creative officer, Tim Willits, stated in a recent interview that Saber is in a position where "We can get any IP," highlighting a strategy of resurrecting beloved but inactive series.
This approach has already seen new entries in long-running series such as Turok and Stuntman, alongside remakes like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Willits, who previously spent 23 years at id Software, believes that many older franchises are essentially untapped resources for publishers.
Saber's decision-making process for greenlighting projects is centered on profitability, with Willits noting that any project must have the potential to yield "4x its cost." He cited Snow Runner as an example, a game that cost approximately six million dollars to develop and has since generated hundreds of millions. World War Z is another success, having been played by 32 million people with consistently performing DLC.
The studio is also working on a John Wick action game and Stuntman, the latter of which Saber acquired the IP for. Willits mentioned that while Stuntman is a smaller project than Space Marine 2, the more predictable revenue from such titles helps fund larger, more ambitious games like the planned Space Marine 3.
Willits suggested that major companies like Microsoft, which owns a vast library of intellectual property, could emulate Saber's strategy. He proposed that these companies could allocate small teams to work on older games, citing MechWarrior and Pitfall as potential examples of franchises that could benefit from such attention.
Saber Interactive currently has several games in development, including Turok Origins and Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival, both of which were showcased at Gamescom. The studio is also working on Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3. Regarding the use of generative AI, Willits indicated that Saber has no universal policy, and while the use in Rideshare Simulator was an experiment, he anticipates that the technology could eventually lead to significant innovations in gaming, akin to the impact of Half-Life 2.