Fans of Warhammer 40,000 games have been served well recently, as not only did the recent Space Marine 2 sell over six million copies as of January 2025, 6 months have barely passed since its release, and it already has a sequel on the way. Publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Saber Interactive have just announced the development of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3, and although it sounds like it just went into production, it’s a far cry from the decade separating the first two Space Marine entries. Space Marine 3 is on its way, and that’s great news.
The initial announcement for Space Marine 3 was limited to a brief video declaring the game’s existence and a couple of paragraphs promising that it would be more of what made the first two games special. Another cinematic campaign and at least one of Space Marine‘s multiplayer modes, whether competitive or cooperative, will be packaged into a third-person shooter/hack-and-slash frame, just like the first two Space Marine games, and that’s all a Space Marine 3 needs. It’s still surprising to hear this announcement so soon after Space Marine 2’s launch, but hopefully it’s meant as a familiar statement of intent.
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Space Marine 3 Could Become Warhammer’s Leading Game Series
Following Call of Duty’s Example Could Make Space Marine A Near-Yearly Hit
Annual game franchises are becoming increasingly rare due to the climbing expectations for AAA video games. Sports and wrestling series still eke out yearly entries, and Like A Dragon has kept up its streak for a while if re-releases and Judgement spin-offs count. Some gaming icons like Final Fantasy, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Super Mario also tend to launch something each year, but the king of this practice remains Call of Duty. Activision-Blizzard, and now Microsoft, have managed to keep up the streak, and while it’s unclear how long it will last, CoD is still a constant presence on game retailer shelves.
Technically, Warhammer is another such franchise, though that’s more because Games Workshop is willing to let many partner studios work with its license at the same time. Between Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Blood Bowl, and Warhammer 40k, there’s always something coming out, but Space Marine 2’s exceptional success recently may have motivated a change to the status quo. The idea behind Space Marine 3 being announced so soon after Space Marine 2 may be to quickly turn the Space Marine series into a regularly-released franchise. It may not reach Call of Duty’s output, but Space Marine already has good reasons to push for it.
Third-Person Shooters Have A CoD-Shaped Hole For Space Marine To Fill
Striking while the iron is hot and filling in niches are the two best ways to sell games, and Space Marine is fortunate enough to come out at a time when it can do both. Thanks to the aforementioned tightening of the AAA gaming space, the sci-fi third-person shooters of the first Space Marine’s heyday are much less common, and demand for them is still evidently high. Gears of War E-Day could beat SM3 to the punch, but that’s it, and both games have their own strengths. If Space Marine 3 recycles SM2’s assets and gameplay, it should be able to reach its market fast.
Space Marine Has Serious Staying Power
It’s a good thing that Space Marine 2 is still releasing multiplayer assets as part of its post-launch support, then, because they could see use for quite a long time. Even though the current Space Marine storyline is focused on the Ultramarine Titus, there are countless other Chapters and warbands that could be given their own 40k game under the Space Marine name. Space Marine may not have the multiple development studios necessary to match Call of Duty’s yearly output, but it has the material to run for just as long, and Space Marine 3’s surprise announcement may herald exactly that.
Third-Person Shooter
Hack and Slash
- Released
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September 9, 2024
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence
- Publisher(s)
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Focus Entertainment