Tim Willits, the chief creative officer of Saber Interactive, recently disclosed that the company has effectively ceased any substantial game‑development operations on the North American continent. While the firm continues to maintain its corporate headquarters and its 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 studios are located in a diverse set of countries, including Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Argentina, and Australia, among others. Prior to its separation from Embracer Group in 2024, Saber Interactive oversaw a number of North‑American subsidiaries: Aspyr in Texas, Demiurge Studios in Boston, Tripwire Interactive in the state of Georgia, and Shiver Entertainment in Florida.
When the split occurred, Aspyr, Demiurge, and Tripwire remained under Embracer’s ownership, while Shiver was acquired by Nintendo in May 2024. Another Embracer‑held studio, Beamdog in Canada, also stayed with the parent company. Saber still retains ownership of New World Interactive, a studio with offices in 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 endured a round of layoffs in 2023 as Saber prepared for its eventual separation from Embracer. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Willits explained that modern game publishers must be "smart about where you make your game." He stressed that Saber is open to establishing development teams in any region that can supply talent, noting that geographic location is no longer a barrier to producing high‑quality work.
"We are not afraid of any territories. Some publishers are hesitant to work in places they don’t understand, but we say, let’s go, let’s find talented people, give them the tools they need, and create something great.
You don’t have to be in California to be an outstanding programmer, artist, or animator," he said. Willits also took the opportunity to criticize the industry’s tendency toward extravagant spending on blockbuster titles. He cited an unnamed game as an example of wasted budget, observing that the development cost for *Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2* was roughly one‑third of the budget for a major title released a few months earlier by 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 argued.
He continued by breaking down the typical financial structure of a big studio in California. "A large North‑American development house can burn more than $2 million per month.
SnowRunner, which has generated hundreds of millions in revenue, cost us about $6 million to produce – that’s essentially three months of development in California," Willits explained. "If a big studio spends five years on a game, that’s 60 months, which translates to $120 million just in salaries. Add marketing and publishing expenses, and you easily reach $150 million, while the profit per unit might only be around $25.
The math just doesn’t work; you have to sell an enormous volume to break even." Willits’ comments highlight a broader shift in the industry toward distributed development models, where studios leverage lower‑cost talent pools worldwide while still delivering AAA‑quality experiences. By moving production to regions with lower overhead, Saber hopes to keep budgets lean, reduce financial risk, and maintain creative flexibility. This approach also aligns with the growing trend of remote collaboration tools and cloud‑based pipelines that make geographic distance less of an obstacle. The full interview with GamesIndustry.biz provides additional context on Saber’s strategic direction, its perspective on the evolving economics of game development, and how the company plans to balance cost efficiency with creative ambition in the years ahead.