Saber CEO Claims He Could’ve Fixed Crystal Dynamic’ Costs; Calls Saints Row Reboot a “Disaster”
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Video game development these days is significantly different from 10-20 years ago. Not only has technology drastically improved, but the cost of making AAA games have increased to the point that they even cost more to make than most movies.
Unfortunately, the consequences of these high-budget, AAA titles are that if they fail to sell millions, the game is considered a failure, and more often than not, the studio has to shut down.
Saber Interactive, the studio behind hits such as World War Z, Space Marine 2, has been able to navigate the rocky road of game development that’s bombarded with non-stop studio closures, project cancellations and more. How they’re doing it isn’t really a secret, and it’s one that studio CEO Matt Karch wanted to implement in other studios too.
In February 2020, the Embracer Group acquired Saber Interactive. However, due to financial hardships, Embracer soon had to shed some of its assets, and that included Saber, which was sold to Beacon Interactive last year. Another high-profile acquisition by Embracer was Crystal Dynamics, which they bought for $300 million in 2022. This was after Crystal Dynamics AAA live service superhero game Marvel’s Avengers, failed to live up to Square Enix’s commercial expectations.
Saber Interactive’s CEO Thinks He Could Have Made Crystal Dynamics More Cost-Efficient
In an interview with Game File (subscription required), Karch talked about the Crystal Dynamics acquisition and how he was frustrated by Embracer for not putting the studio under its belt given they (Crystal Dynamics) were known to be expensive since the studio was based in southern California, which is one of the most expensive places to work in.
Karch commented, “We would have been able to get their costs under much better control,” though this probably meant that Karch would keep costs of the studio down by hiring employees in other parts of the world where it would have cost significantly lower.
For reference, Saber Interactive has studios located in Armenia, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Serbia and other parts of the world, with their US presence smaller due to cost issues.
Karch, on Crystal Dynamics’ costs, ” would have fixed it.”
Did this mean layoffs were part of his plan?
Karch used the Saints Row reboot as an example of how cost outweighed the revenue and how it wasn’t a sustainable business model. “The Saints Row team is gone,” Karch stated. “Why are they gone?” Karch asked before answering. his own question: “They were so expensive for what they were. They didn’t know what they were building. They didn’t have any real direction. It couldn’t last. And so, who’s going to fund them for the next game after that disaster?”
Karch added, “It would be nice in an ideal world for everyone to have a job. But games with nine-figure budgets are making eight figures in revenue, and that’s dooming a lot of developers, he later says, “If I were running a team in California, my goal would be: ‘Okay. Who are the absolutely must-haves in this group? And they exist. We have American talent [at Saber.] And who could do this for, you know, a quarter of the price in Poland?”
To date, Crystal Dynamics is still under the Embracer Group, and the studio is currently working on a new Tomb Raider game in collaboration with Amazon Games.
As for Saber Interactive, the studio just announced Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 3, though it’ll be years before it gets released.
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lol It’s like none of you have actually played through the Saints Row reboot. The game is highly entertaining and had a pretty good story outside of the typical propaganda and ideology which is in everything.
The main issue with the reboot was that it launched bugged to all hell. It’s not perfect now but they fixed it up real good and it’s a fun and entertaining game.
Also, a subscription required to listen to a PR interview with some jackoff CEO? LOL
The Saint’s Row reboot is awful. If you think that’s a good game, game companies are going to love you because they could literally sell you anything. Sad.
The Saint’s Row reboot flopped because it was, and is, a terrible game, not because of it’s budget. These “ceo’s” just don’t get it. Make good games, get money. There’s nothing more to it. No live service, no microtransactions, nothing. Just make good games and hire the people that have the skills to make them.