Tim Willins, the chief creative officer of Saber Interactive, recently disclosed that the company has essentially ceased having any substantial development activity on the North American continent. While Saber still maintains its corporate headquarters and a publishing division within the United States, the actual creation of games now takes place across a network of fifteen studios scattered around the globe. These development hubs are located in a diverse set of countries, including Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Argentina, and Australia, among others. The shift away from North‑American production did not happen overnight.
Prior to its separation from the Embracer Group in 2024, Saber Interactive oversaw a number of U.S.-based subsidiaries: Aspyr in Texas, Demiurge Studios in Boston, Tripwire Interactive in Georgia, and Shiver Entertainment in Florida. When the split was finalized, Aspyr, Demiurge, and Tripwire remained under Embracer’s ownership, while Shiver was acquired by Nintendo in May 2024. Another former Embracer asset, Beamdog in Canada, also stayed with the parent group.
Despite the overall retreat from the continent, Saber still retains ownership of New World Interactive, a studio that operates out of Denver, Colorado, and Calgary, Alberta. New World is best known for the 2018 tactical shooter *Insurgency: Sandstorm*, which received a significant content update in May of this year. The studio experienced a round of layoffs in 2023 as part of the broader restructuring that preceded Saber’s independence from Embracer. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Willins emphasized that modern game publishers need to be “smart about where you make your game.” He argued that geographic location should not be a barrier to assembling top‑tier talent, and that Saber is fully prepared to establish development teams wherever skilled creators can be found.
“We are not afraid of any territories,” he said. “Some publishers shy away from markets they don’t understand, but we think, ‘let’s go, let’s locate talented people, give them the resources they need, and produce something awesome.’ You don’t have to be in California to be an outstanding programmer, artist, or animator.” Willins also took the opportunity to criticize the industry’s tendency to pour massive sums of money into blockbuster projects without clear justification. He recounted watching a high‑budget title—he chose not to name it—where he could literally see “dollars falling out of the monitor.” By contrast, he pointed out that the development budget for *Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2* was roughly one‑third of the cost of a recent, much larger North‑American release, yet Space Marine 2 sold 11 million more copies.
“You don’t need to spend $150 million to make a billion‑dollar franchise,” he asserted. Willins broke down the economics of large‑scale development in the United States.
He noted that many big studios burn through more than $2 million per month in payroll alone. By comparison, Saber’s own title *SnowRunner*—a game that has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue—cost the company about $6 million to develop, which equates to roughly three months of a typical California studio’s salary bill.
“If a big studio takes five years to finish a game, that’s 60 months, which translates to $120 million just in salaries,” he explained. Adding marketing, publishing, and other overhead can easily push the total to $150 million, while the profit margin per unit sold may be as low as $25.
“The math just doesn’t add up—you have to sell a massive quantity just to break even, and that’s the problem.” The interview highlighted a broader industry conversation about efficiency, talent distribution, and the sustainability of ever‑larger development budgets. Willins’ remarks suggest that Saber Interactive will continue to pursue a globally dispersed studio model, leveraging lower‑cost regions without sacrificing quality. By focusing on leaner budgets, flexible staffing, and a willingness to work outside traditional hubs like Los Angeles or San Francisco, Saber hopes to remain competitive while avoiding the financial pitfalls that have plagued some of its larger peers.
For readers interested in the full conversation, the complete GamesIndustry.biz interview with Tim Willins is available through the original publication.