adminSaber Interactive game development is now spread across studios in multiple regions, rather than being centered in North America. Chief creative officer Tim Willits says the company is willing to work wherever it can find talented teams, and argues that production location can have a major effect on a game’s budget.
Saber Interactive game development spans 15 studios
Saber Interactive is headquartered in the United States, where its publishing team is also based. Its development work, however, takes place across 15 studios in countries including Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Argentina, and Australia.
The company became independent from Embracer in 2024. Several studios that had been part of Saber before the separation remained with Embracer: Aspyr in Texas, Demiurge Studios in Boston, and Tripwire Interactive in Georgia. Shiver Entertainment, based in Florida, was sold to Nintendo in May 2024. Beamdog, which is based in Canada, also stayed with Embracer.
Saber still owns New World Interactive, which has offices in Denver and Calgary. The studio developed the 2018 shooter Insurgency: Sandstorm, which received a major update in May. New World Interactive also went through layoffs in 2023, before Saber’s separation from Embracer.
Practical context: A company’s headquarters do not necessarily indicate where its games are made. Saber’s studio locations show how development teams can be distributed across countries while publishing operations remain elsewhere.
Willits says studios can succeed outside North America
Willits says game companies should consider carefully where they build their projects. Saber is open to establishing studios in different territories, including places some publishers may be less familiar with. In his view, strong programming, art, and animation talent is not limited to major North American production centers.
That approach reflects a broader production choice: companies can assess talent availability and operating costs in different regions rather than assuming a game must be developed in one particular location. The relevant considerations can vary by project, so studio location alone does not determine a game’s quality or success.
Production budgets and the cost of large games
Willits also criticized what he sees as unnecessary spending on some large-scale games. He cited Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, saying its development cost was a third of the cost of a major game released a few months earlier by a large North American studio, while it sold 11 million more copies. These comparisons are Willits’s account of the projects and their performance.
He said SnowRunner, released in 2021, cost $6 million to develop and has generated hundreds of millions of dollars. Willits contrasted that figure with his estimate that large North American development studios can have monthly operating costs above $2 million. At that rate, five years—or 60 months—would mean $120 million in salaries alone. Marketing and publishing expenses could, he said, bring a project’s total cost to around $150 million.
Willits also estimated that a game might return about $25 in profit per copy sold. Those figures illustrate why high-budget projects may need substantial sales to recoup their costs; actual budgets and returns can differ from game to game.
SnowRunner (2021) cost $6 million to develop, according to Willits. Image credit: Saber Interactive/Focus Entertainment.
What Saber’s approach means for game development
Saber Interactive game development highlights two factors that publishers weigh when planning a project: where skilled teams are available and how production costs accumulate over time. Willits’s comments make the case for building teams across different regions and keeping budgets in view, while the company’s 15-studio structure demonstrates how development can operate internationally.
