Saber Talks Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 – PvP Bots, Industry Struggles and More

Possibly one of the biggest surprises of the year is none other than Saber Interactive’s Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2. Not only does it splinter from your standard template of what an action should be in this era of gaming, but it’s one not marketed as a live service game, even if it fits the bill (somewhat).

While we really, really liked what we played of Space Marine 2, we had a few questions in our heads that needed answering. Thankfully, Saber was in a giving mood and agreed to talk to MP1st about the game’s development, the gaming industry’s struggles as of late and more.

Answering the questions are: Dmitry Grigorenko, Game Director, Tim Willits, Chief Creative Officer and Oliver Hollis-Leick, Creative Director.

Space Marine 2 Interview With Saber Interactive

MP1st: Will there be bots for PVP down the line, maybe to ease new players into it before they jump into the competitive side?

Dmitry: I’m afraid there are no plans for bots in PvP. However, we want to continue improving PvP to make it easier to play with your friends. We will add custom lobbies for PvP where people can adjust game parameters like score limit, time limit, or class restrictions. Players will be able to have casual fun with it.

MP1st: Crossplay exists for the PvE side of things, but not on the PvP side. Understandable considering the disadvantage PC players can have over console players, but still, a bit of a bummer as there might be times I want to go into PvP with my friends after playing PvE. Can you explain the decision to keep those split still? Can we maybe hope down the road for an option, while keeping it off by default, to have crossplay in PvP?

Dmitry: Yes, this is something we are considering right now. There are some technical limitations on our side, but I think we can work around them.MP1st: What inspired the counter and its satisfying sound effects? We just can’t get over how good it feels and sounds, it just never gets old.

Dmitry: Well, we knew that the game would be about Tyranids. This means that there will be a lot of enemies against you. But what would be the most Space Marine way of fighting?

It would be going for the biggest enemy officer, ignoring little guys. Just like medieval knights go for an honorable duel while untrained peasants can’t really do anything to them (at least how this looks in the movies). Having a duel with a worthy opponent, Tyranid Warrior, in our case, automatically means that he can kill you too – and a Space Marine just rolling away from enemies would break the power fantasy. By adding counters and parry we allowed players to stay and fight in the middle of it like true knights. Parrying the enemy opens him up for a follow up, and it’s like saying “ok my turn now”. Even when hormagaunts/low-level enemies try to attack you they are nothing more than minor annoyance to you that interrupts your duel. You parry them and they get immediately executed. Once you finish the Tyranid Warrior, all the remaining little guys scatter. Parries and counters are simply necessary to build this power fantasy and I’m glad that most of the players are playing exactly as Space Marines would.

MP1st: Speaking of “feeling good,” the team nailed that heavy feeling of being in power armor. It’s tanky, but in a, “I’m unstoppable” kind of way. Tell us about that, what was sort of the process of making sure the team got that just right, without it feeling super sluggish, while also not being super fast. A perfect balance of movement and combat to best explain it.

Dmitry: The 1st pillar of the game when it was pitched was the power fantasy of being a Space Marine. Just like in the original game. So every single aspect of the game was built around the fact that you need to feel like a Space Marine. I don’t think we had an organized process here, we just sat down together and said “ok this doesn’t feel like a Space Marine, this move is too fast, there isn’t enough blood  and the camera shakes too little for such a powerful strike,” etc. Me being a Warhammer 40k fan helps to make this kind of feedback as well as working closely with GW.

MP1st: PvP is strictly competitive, as in player versus player? Or can we expect some PvE elements to also appear? Has the team thought of adding some potential PvE during a PvP match, such as a Xeno outbreak in the middle, so now players have to worry about those on top of each other.

Dmitry: PvPvE is a holy grail of game design. A lot of studios are trying to find it and a lot of them fail. The truth is that it’s a very very difficult task. It sounds great on paper, but when you actually start trying, it becomes apparent that it’s very annoying when you fight other players only to get backstabbed by an AI opponent. This is why most of the games are trying to ensure that PvP and PvE aspects don’t intersect that much, i.e. AI opponents are restricted to specific places on maps, etc. It’s a complicated mode to implement that would change the experience significantly, so I’m afraid there are no plans for it.

MP1st: Space Marine 2 seems to be Saber’s most ambitious project to date. What made the studio go “OK, we’re going to shoot for the moon on this one” compared to other games?

Oliver: One of the biggest drivers for putting so much into Space Marine 2 was the unique passion for the franchise that was felt by everyone on the team. This is a group of people who have played all the 40k games, who read the novels, paint the models and who love the IP. We knew from the start that we wanted to go all out and make something truly special, and we had the support of our leadership in getting the resources to do that.

MP1st: The roadmap for the game was already revealed, and though it has one, is the game a live service? It doesn’t seem to be one, and why didn’t the studio go that route? Especially since the game seemed suited for it. 

Tim: It is hard to really define exactly what a “live service” game is nowadays. We will be supporting and updating Space Marine 2 for a long time. We learned a lot about what players want with World War Z, and we plan on taking those lessons and applying them to Space Marine 2 post-launch plans. We have to support our active community with the content they want. We are still learning a lot about what people are playing, how they are playing, and what they want to see more of. We will always adjust our post-launch plans moving forward, but we are fully committed to keeping our fans engaged and excited about the future of the game.

MP1st: What’s refreshing for me personally is that Space Marine 2 doesn’t get bogged down by endless side quests, open world this, level up grind and all the modern gaming trappings that most studios use to tick a checkbox off. In SM2, you just grab a weapon, and lay waste to enemies. It harkens back to the kind of gaming experience we had in past years before everything was forced to have microtransactions, grinding, etc. Was that intentional for Saber? What was the inspiration and belief that something like this would work — especially in today’s gaming climate? 

Oliver: Saber has a great track record of making games that have moment to moment experience at their core. From Halo remastered to World War Z, one of our core tenets has been to make the games fun to play, without constantly forcing players to perform innumerable tasks that have little to no impact on the experience. We make the kind of games we want to play. A lot of us grew up with those awesome co-op games from the 2000’s, rocking split screen action with our friends every weekend. The success of Space Marine 2 shows how much that experience has been missed by players.

Dmitry: Yes, that was intentional. The idea behind this project was to make a perfect sequel. The original game was very simple in terms of what it wanted to be (not in terms of how difficult it was to make of course). We could have made a sequel with an open world where you can hide in tall grass, but I doubt that our fans would like that. And like I’ve said before, we just wanted to make a perfect sequel for the fans of the original game and the universe.

MP1st: The gaming industry is in a very bad state right now with layoffs happening every week. How does Saber handle those rough seas? 

Tim: The gaming industry has definitely faced challenges recently, especially as we came out of the pandemic, which has shifted the landscape for many developers and studios. At Saber, we are aware of these shifts and are committed to managing our business in a way that ensures success for both our teams and our projects. With studios located around the world, we focus on matching each development team with projects that fit within reasonable budgets and team sizes, always ensuring that the core gameplay experience remains the focus. We try to avoid over-inflating our games, and each project undergoes regular evaluation through production milestones and creative review gates. This approach allows us to remain agile and adaptable, ensuring that the development process is as efficient as possible. Additionally, by having multiple projects running simultaneously across different studios, we maximize resources and studio budgets. And lastly, our philosophy centers around finding the fun in a game as early as possible in development. Once we know what makes a game enjoyable, we build the scope and features around that core experience, giving us the confidence to move forward and develop a polished, focused product. This method not only ensures quality but also helps us balance ambition with practical execution.

• Related Reading: Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 Best Settings

MP1st: Leading to that, how can devs survive this phase?  

Tim: This is a complex question, and I don’t want to over-simplify my answer, but I believe success in game development hinges on focusing on the core experience as early as possible. Finding the “fun” of a game early in development makes the entire process more manageable. Once you have something enjoyable, you can make better decisions regarding scope, budget, and resources. When the gameplay works and resonates with players during early prototypes, it reduces risk significantly. The developer can focus on refining the experience, while the publisher has more confidence in funding and marketing the title. This approach also leads to more effective collaboration between teams because everyone has a clear understanding of the vision and can make decisions from a safer place. Essentially, early fun equates to better decision making, streamlined production, and a much stronger foundation for a successful launch. It’s not about over-simplifying development but ensuring that every decision after finding the core fun aligns with enhancing that experience.

MP1st: Does Saber see game development stick to this kind of development cycle when it comes to AA/AAA games?? I mean, it doesn’t look sustainable given how much money is being used for years before anything is released, and once a game is pushed out after 3-5 years in development, if it’s not a multi-million selling hit, the studio is in danger of closing down. 

Tim: This is a challenging question because every game and every developer is different. Some studios are successful developing massive, big-budget titles over the course of many years, while others find success with smaller, more focused projects. There’s no one-size-fits-all formula. What’s critical, is having a close, transparent relationship between developers and publishers. Clear communication and mutual trust are key to fully understanding the game being made and ensuring the budget and timeline are realistic. I’ve seen too many games where developers and publishers were out of sync—whether it’s over expectations, creative direction, or scope—which often leads to frustration and failure. The most successful projects tend to have the right people, working on the right game, with an appropriate budget. When everyone is open to sharing feedback and opinions throughout the process, they’re more likely to deliver a game that’s successful. Ultimately, it’s about aligning goals early on and maintaining an honest, collaborative relationship through development. When everyone is on the same page, the likelihood of creating a successful game increases dramatically.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is out now on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. You can check out our continued coverage of the game right here.

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