If you are someone who usually reads news about the video game industry, you will know very well that developing AAA video games nowadays is a very risky bet because the risk of failing is high, and the consequences can be disastrous for the studio due to the high production costs. In this sense, one of the latest AAA titles that has turned out to be a success is Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, the PVE shooter by Saber Interactive.
It has been almost a month since its release, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has become the second best-selling release of 2024 in Europe. Still, the creative director explained in an interview given to IGN why some studios fail when developing a AAA game. Tim Willits points out that, apart from focusing on fun, they have applied mechanics that people like and that they handle perfectly.
Why is Space Marine 2 a success while others are not?
“One of the things we try to do at Saber Interactive, which is part of my job as creative head of all teams, is that we firmly believe that what you do every second and what happens when you press these buttons and that core gameplay loop is essential. So we focus on moment-to-moment interaction in the game and the feeling you have. And then we stick to our basic pillars, like being the ultimate Space Marine, melee, ranged, swarms, that’s it,” explains Willits.
What the creative director of Saber means is that they have focused on what they do well as a team without taking on additional mechanics. “Many development teams exaggerate the scope of games. They look at another game that just came out and say, ‘oh, we have to do that, let’s add this, we have to do this.’ And they lose sight of the essential, what makes the game fun. In Space Marine 2, there is no new and revolutionary gameplay mechanic that no one has ever seen before. There are gameplay mechanics that people are very familiar with, but we do them very, very well. And we execute them very, very well,” he points out. The success of Space Marine 2 allows them to be ambitious with a DLC and a possible sequel, but for now, it is time to expect new content and updates that refine what is already a complete work.
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