In a Gamescom interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Saber Interactive CCO Tim Willits revealed that the company has “no real development in North America anymore,” with only publishing operations continuing in the region, while game development occurs at a host of global subsidiaries.
“We are not afraid of any territories,” Willits said. “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 expressed his disapproval of the “wasted money” he sees in many triple-A games, contrasting an unspecified recent release with Saber’s own Space Marine 2. “It was a third [of the cost], and it sold 11 million more copies,” Willits boasted.
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What game do you think Willits was alluding to? Sound off in the comments. My best guesses are Halo: Campaign Evolved or Marathon, two North American triple-As with sales publicly reported at one million units at last call (to Space Marine’s 12 at last check), and budgets well in excess of the 40K shooter’s—though difficult to pin down exactly.
“The problem is stuff like this: big North American development studios, they run about $2 million+ in burn rate a month. A month,” said Willits. “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.”
A large part of what Willits is describing is offshoring jobs to lower-wage markets. GI.biz describes Saber as having development offices in Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Argentina, and Australia.
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But he undeniably has a point: Triple-A game development in the United States is clearly unsustainable as currently organized. Speaking with us at Gamescom, Willits diagnosed “overspecialization” among developers as another contributor to the ongoing crisis in the industry, though he also argued the crisis is not quite so bad as it’s being reported.