Saber Interactive CEO and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 developer Matthew Karch appeared to confirm the authenticity of his comment decrying games at Embracer Group that had “overblown attempts at messaging or imposing morals on gamers.”
A screenshot from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (2024), Focus Entertainment
In a comment on a video of the Asmongold TV YouTube channel where Asmongold reacts to Legendary Drops’ “Space Marine 2 is a reminder of what we lost,” Karch made his opinion clear.
He wrote, “Hey man. CEO of Saber here. I love your videos. When we signed the deal to make Space Marine 2, all I wanted was a throwback game. We had the chance to work on something which by its nature was ‘old school’.”
“I can’t even comprehend many of the current games that we play these days. They are too complex and too much of an investment,” he added.
Next, he shared that he was inspired by Halo, “We worked on Halo back in the day, and that game could be distilled down to the simplest of shooting loops, but it was entirely addicting. That is what we wanted to recapture.”
A screenshot from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (2024), Focus Entertainment
Karch then shared his hope that Space Marine 2 and Black Myth: Wukong are the start of a revival in the video game industry to get back to fun and immersion.
He wrote, “I hope that games like Space Marine 2 and Wukong are the start of a reversion to a time when games were simply about fun and immersion.”
A screenshot from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (2024), Focus Entertainment
Finally, he lamented the state of the industry during his brief time as Chief Operating Officer at Embracer Group, “I spent some time as Chief Operating Officer at Embracer and I saw games there that made me want to cry with their overblown attempts at messaging or imposing morals on gamers.”
“We just want to do some glory kills and get the heart rate up a little. For me that is what games should be about,” he concluded.
Matthew Karch on YouTube
Karch appeared to confirm the comments authenticity in a response to The Games Fund founder Ilia Eremeev on LinkedIn. Eremeev praised Karch for the post on YouTube writing, “One of the coolest things I’ve read recently. WH40k Space Marine 2 is a badass game, we played it in co-op with Maria Kochmola and had tons of fun.”
He added, “So refreshing to see Matthew Karch engaging with the community. Based CEO. I wish big companies will hear the community and their customers, you know, PLAYERS, and not just shareholders.”
Ilia Ermeev on LinkedIn
Karch responded, “Whoever wrote that seems pretty sharp ).”
Matthew Karch on LinkedIn
READ: Games Workshop Retcons Adeptus Custodes By Introducing Female Space Marines Then Lies About It
On top of this comment, Karch revealed that Space Marine 2 “wildly surpassed [Saber Interactive’s] projections for the game. In fact, the success of the game led to Aleph Capital Partners and Crestview Capital Partners to fund Saber Interactive.
He wrote on LinkedIn, “After our departure from Embracer, we have been working on finding a partner with the resources to help Saber grow and with the foresight to believe in our business plan. On the heels of our release of Space Marine 2 (which has already wildly surpassed our projections) we are proud to announce that we have taken on two equity investors Aleph Capital Partners and Crestview Capital Partners.”
“I can’t express how happy I am to have gotten this done and how excited I am to be working with Jamie and Brian. This is a new chapter in Saber’s history and we are well equipped to help change the face of the game industry,” Karch added. “We could not have gotten here without the support of Lars, Kicki and Jacob from Embracer. I have and always will consider them to be part of our family. And of course a massive thanks to my brother the “keyboard god” Michael Levy who has been our advisor, friend, confidant and my personal therapist for the past 18 months.”
He then declared, “Saber is committed to changing the way we make and deliver games. Gone will be the days of $100m+ budgets and the nickel and diming of gamers. Our industry has been stuck in the Jurassic era of bloated budgets and risk-laden releases for way too long. With Crestview and Aleph by our side, we are poised to change that.”
Matthew Karch on LinkedIn
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is currently the top selling game on Steam.
A screenshot of Steam’s Top Sellers as of September 18, 2024 at 3:31 PM ET
READ: Warhammer Hobbyists Mock Games Workshop For Scrapping Their Lore And Making Female Adeptus Custodes
The game also hit a peak concurrent player count of 225,690 when it launched on September 9th. Since then the player count has declined, but it still boasts nearly 100,000 concurrent players in the past 24-hours.
SteamDB concurrent player data for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (2024), Saber Interactive
What do you make of Karch’s comment?
