Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is a breakout hit for developer Saber Interactive, promoting over 7 million copies in lower than a yr. As the recreation approaches its first anniversary, and with the hotly anticipated Patch 10 imminent, improvement chief Tim Willits has a lot to be pleased about.
“It has not been on any streaming service,” Willits informed me in an interview at gamescom 2025. “You need to play it, you bought to purchase it. And it is simply rocking and rolling. And it wasn’t overpriced. It wasn’t overscoped. It wasn’t over-designed.”
However Space Marine 2 was not a assured success. No online game is. In reality, issues have been trying ropey when Saber and writer Focus Leisure introduced a vital delay to the recreation, from 2023 to the second half of 2024.
This, Willits says, was the “smartest” transfer Saber has ever made – and you’ll be able to see why. Space Marine 2 is definitely the largest Warhammer 40,000 online game of all time, impressing veteran followers of the well-known grimdark tabletop recreation and newcomers alike. Enormous participant numbers adopted in addition to file gross sales. As Willits informed me final yr, Space Marine 2 modified every part for Saber, and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the inevitable Space Marine 3 was introduced. A full second yr of content material for Space Marine 2 can be in the works.
“With Space Marine 2, when you bear in mind, we really delayed that,” Willits mentioned. “It was f***ing price it! And that was the smartest factor we ever did.”
Reflecting on Space Marine 2’s first yr, Willits admitted it’s an ongoing problem to launch sufficient DLC, each free and premium, to fulfill followers who’re at all times hungry for extra content material. He pointed to the free horde mode, dubbed Siege, as a explicit excessive level of Space Marine 2’s first yr. “Are you able to title any big AAA video games that launch free modes inside months after the recreation?” Willits questioned. “The staff is obsessed with it. They’re tremendous Space Marine nerds, and fan urge for food for it’s over the high.”
Saber, who advanced its spectacular zombie tech for prior recreation World Conflict Z and utilized it to the Tyranids for Space Marine 2, was ready to present DLC post-launch, Willits mentioned. “We realized our lesson in World Conflict Z. So when World Conflict Z got here out, we have been unprepared to be sincere. We have been like, ‘Oh my god, that is a success. Go!’ And so we have been far more ready. We had folks working on stuff a yr plus earlier than we launched, as a result of we knew. We knew. And we realized our lesson. However you are proper, feeding the machine is difficult.”
Space Marine 2 is actually set for lots of DLC in its second yr, however will it get a story growth? Or will followers have to wait till Space Marine 3 comes out to discover out what occurs subsequent to Titus and mates? “I imply we’ve got some plans, however we’ve got to work with Focus to get the proper announcement,” Willits teased. “Nothing is off the desk.”
Space Marine 2’s success has even positively impacted the improvement of different Saber video games, and given the firm the confidence to delay once more figuring out how helpful it may be in the long term. John Carpenter’s Poisonous Commando, for instance, was delayed out of this yr and into early 2026, and Willits is completely calm about it.
“Space Marine 2 was so profitable for us that we wished to be sure that we did not rush out Poisonous Commando instantly after that,” he defined. “And we wished to be sure that the staff had assets and the time and the testing. We’ve achieved a number of beta assessments, we have got regular folks taking part in it. We had sign-up a few weeks in the past.
“That’s one of the nice issues about Saber. We handle our enterprise properly and we don’t over scope, over design and bloat our groups or our initiatives, which then permits us to be like, ‘Hey, you understand what? Let’s really spend a little extra time on Poisonous. Space Marine’s doing nice, we’re making content material for that. Individuals adore it.’
“As a result of avid gamers are sensible. They at all times know when a recreation is rushed or like, ‘You can have achieved higher when you’d spent a little extra time with it.’ So we’re in a place as a result of of how we make video games and how we do work, and that provides us the flexibility and freedom to focus on ensuring the video games are pretty much as good as they are often. So sure, it is a little longer previous Space Marine, however I feel it will be a lot better.”
Whereas Warhammer 40,000 was doing fantastically properly for Video games Workshop earlier than Space Marine 2 got here out, the online game has actually lifted the setting to one other stage. Video games Workshop just lately introduced the first ever formally licensed wearable Space Marine helmet — and it’s styled after Lieutenant Titus from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.
Surprisingly, Willits didn’t find out about it after I introduced it up. “That is cool. I had no thought!” he mentioned. “And I normally purchase all that stuff.”
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.