Chief creative officer Tim Willits says companies need to be "smart about where you make your game"

Saber Interactive's chief creative officer, Tim Willits, has said that the company has "no real development in North America any more."

The firm still has its headquarters in the United States, and its publishing team is based there, but game development is now done at 15 studios based around the world in countries including Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Argentina, and Australia.

Before becoming independent from Embracer in 2024, Saber Interactive was the parent to Aspyr in Texas, Demiurge Studios in Boston, Tripwire Interactive in Georgia, and Shiver Entertainment in Florida. But Aspyr, Demiurge, and Tripwire stayed with Embracer after the split, and Shiver was sold to Nintendo in May 2024. Beamdog in Canada also stayed with Embracer.

However, Saber does still own New World Interactive, which has offices in Denver and Calgary. New World is behind the 2018 shooter Insurgency: Sandstorm, which received a major update in May. The studio underwent a round of layoffs in 2023 ahead of Saber's split with Embracer.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Willits said that companies need to be "smart about where you make your game", and that Saber is open to setting up studios around the world.

"We are not afraid of any territories. Some publishers are afraid to work in territories they don't understand, but we're like, let's go, let's find some people that are talented, let's give them what they need, and let's make awesomeness. You don't need to be in California to be a brilliant programmer or artist or animator."

Willits was also critical of wasteful spending on big games.

"Sometimes I play these games – I won't mention the game – and I can just see the wasted money. I can see dollars falling out of the monitor. But I can tell you that the development cost for [Warhammer 40,000] Space Marine 2 was a third of a major game that just released not too many months ago from a big North American studio. It was a third, and it sold 11 million more copies. You don't need to spend $150 million to make a billion."

"The problem is stuff like this: big North American development studios, they run about $2 million+ in burn rate a month. A month. SnowRunner, which has made hundreds of millions of dollars, costs us $6 million to make. That's literally three months of development time in California.

"So just run the math on that. If it takes [a big studio] five years to make a game, that's 60 months, that's $120 million just in salaries." Adding on things like marketing and publishing costs can easily push that up to $150 million, he said, while each game sold might only return around $25 in profit. "The math just doesn't… you've got to sell a buttload, that's the problem."

The full GamesIndustry.biz interview is here.

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