“We can get any IP” – Saber CCO on why reviving dormant franchises is the big, obvious secret the the publisher’s success, and why Xbox could learn from it
Saber Interactive's chief creative officer Tim Willits has attributed the studio's recent success to its willingness to revive dormant video game franchises, telling Eurogamer at Gamescom that "we can get any IP". This approach has powered a string of releases including Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, alongside new entries in older series such as Turok and Stuntman, at a time when many studios go long stretches between releases. Willits suggested other companies, particularly Microsoft, could take a similar approach given the amount of unused IP sitting idle within large publishers.
Willits explained that Saber only greenlights projects it believes can earn four times their production cost, citing SnowRunner (made for around $6 million but generating hundreds of millions in revenue) and World War Z (played by 32 million people) as examples of small teams turning modest ideas into major hits. He also discussed his own history at id Software, where he worked on Hexen and Strife in 1996, joking he could try to secure the rights to Strife from Microsoft, which now owns both id Software and Activision's back catalogue. Saber currently has multiple titles in development, including Turok Origins, Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3.
- Saber Interactive CCO says reviving old IP drives its success
- Projects greenlit only if likely to earn 4x costs
- Willits suggests Microsoft could revive dormant franchises similarly