Warhammer 40,000: Space Marines 2 received multiple 2024 Game Awards nominations and sold over five million copies. But its makers say the visually impressive old-school-feeling sci-fi shooter cost only a quarter of what’s needed to make most big-budget AAA blockbusters. Developed by Saber Interactive, the company’s CEO, Matt Karch, thinks this model is the future.
“I think that the age of the $200 million, $300 million, $400 million triple-A game is on its way out,” he told Stephen Totilo at Game File in an interview published earlier this week. “I don’t think it’s necessary. I don’t think it’s appropriate.”
By some estimates, average AAA game budgets have more than doubled every console generation. The first Spider-Man on PlayStation 4 was around $100 million to make. Spider-Man 2 on PlayStation 5 was over $300 million. But the games don’t sell dramatically better and are only priced $10 higher.
Some games try to make up the difference with aggressive microtransaction shops. Karch thinks part of Space Marine 2‘s success, and the way fans flocked to it, can be attributed to its one-and-done campaign and the fact it doesn’t “milk, nickel and dime” players like live-service games.
Insomniac Games, the studio behind Spider-Man 1 and 2, like many teams in the video game industry over the last few years, suffered layoffs just a few months after the sequel came out despite strong sales. “I don’t know how best to put it…I think if anything has contributed more to the loss of jobs, it’s the multi-hundred million dollar budget,” Karch told Game File.
He pitches Space Marine 2 as an alternative. Last year, former id Software studio director turned Saber Interactive chief creative officer, Tim Willits, told IGN that the sequel to the cult-favorite Xbox 360-era shooter only cost half of what it took to make Doom Eternal, but looks and plays equally well. No doubt part of that is due to much cheaper development costs outside of the U.S. where most of Saber Interactive’s staff work.
“We can make games [like] Space Marine,” Karch told Game File this week. “You’re not going to tell me it doesn’t have a Triple A vibe to it. You may say, ‘Oh it’s double-A plus.’ It’s a solid game. Its budget was a quarter of what anybody else would spend.”
Whether Space Marine 2 proves to be the exception or the new rule remains to be seen. Others warn that the mid-level space it’s playing in is essentially dead for all but the biggest standouts, swallowed up by Fortnite, Call of Duty, and other mega-hits that consume an increasing amount of money and time from a limited number of players. And the biggest game of 2025, Grand Theft Auto 6, will likely have cost way more than just $400 million to make.
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