Tim Willins, the chief creative officer of Saber Interactive, recently revealed that the studio has essentially ceased any significant game‑development activity on the North American continent. While the company still maintains its corporate headquarters and a publishing division within the United States, the actual creation of games now takes place in a network of fifteen studios scattered across the globe.
These development sites include locations in Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Argentina and Australia, among others, illustrating a deliberate shift toward a truly international production model. Historically, before Saber Interactive broke away from its former parent Embracer Group in 2024, the firm oversaw several North‑American subsidiaries. It owned Aspyr in Texas, Demiurge Studios in Boston, Tripwire Interactive in the state of Georgia, and Shiver Entertainment in Florida. When the separation occurred, Aspyr, Demiurge and Tripwire remained with Embracer, while Shiver was sold to Nintendo in May 2024.
Another Embracer‑affiliated studio, Beamdog in Canada, also stayed with the parent company. Despite the overall retreat from North‑American development, Saber still retains ownership of New World Interactive, a studio that maintains offices in both Denver, Colorado, and Calgary, Alberta. New World is best known for the 2018 tactical shooter *Insurgency: Sandstorm*, which received a substantial content update in May of this year.
The studio, however, experienced a round of layoffs in 2023 as part of Saber’s broader restructuring ahead of the split from Embracer. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Willins emphasized that modern game publishers must be "smart about where you make your game." He explained that Saber is open to establishing new development hubs wherever talent can be found, without being constrained by geography. "We are not afraid of any territories.
Some publishers are hesitant to work in regions they don’t understand, but we say, ‘let’s go, let’s find skilled people, give them the resources they need, and create something amazing.’ You don’t have to be based in California to be a brilliant programmer, artist or animator," he said. Willins also used the conversation to critique the industry’s propensity for extravagant spending on blockbuster titles. He cited an unnamed high‑budget game as an example of waste, noting that he could literally see "dollars falling out of the monitor" when watching it.
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 major release from a large North‑American studio, yet the latter 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 big‑studio development to illustrate his point. He explained that many large North‑American studios burn through more than $2 million each month in salaries alone.
By comparison, Saber’s own title *SnowRunner*—a game that has generated hundreds of millions in revenue—cost the company about $6 million to develop, which equates to roughly three months of development at a California‑based studio’s payroll rate. "If a big studio takes five years to finish a game, that’s 60 months, or $120 million just in salaries," he calculated. Adding marketing, publishing and other ancillary costs can easily push the total budget beyond $150 million, while the profit margin on each unit sold might be only around $25. "The math just doesn’t work; you have to sell an enormous number of copies to break even, and that’s the real problem," he concluded.
Willins’ comments highlight a broader trend in the video‑game industry toward decentralization and cost efficiency. By leveraging talent pools in countries with lower operating expenses, studios can produce high‑quality experiences without the massive overhead traditionally associated with North‑American development hubs. This approach also allows companies to be more agile, adapting quickly to market shifts and consumer preferences without being tied to a single geographic location. The full interview with GamesIndustry.biz provides additional context and details about Saber Interactive’s strategic direction, its ongoing projects, and Willins’ perspective on the future of game development worldwide.