Games Workshop is famously protective of the Warhammer 40,000 intellectual property, so much so that it carefully controls adaptations of its grimdark tabletop game to make sure everything is as lore accurate as possible.
That protective work went on during the development of Space Marine 2, now the most-played Warhammer video game of all time on Steam. Developer Saber Interactive worked closely with Games Workshop over Space Marine 2’s four-year development to ensure it was as authentic as possible, right down to the nuts and bolts of a Space Marine’s armor.
Speaking to IGN, Saber Interactive Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits discussed its working relationship with Games Workshop, and some of the challenges it faced ensuring Space Marine 2 passed all those lore checks.
“Let me give you an example,” Willits began, “the ankle armor we had, the ankle armor was the wrong size and they told us that the ankle armor was wrong.”
It’s a funny problem to fix, but building a virtual Space Marine was no mean feat. After all, Space Marines were introduced in 1987 with nary a thought for how they might be made to work on a video game battlefield.
“45 years ago when the guy that made the little Space Marine that sat on the table, he probably was not imagining them animating in a video game 45 years later,” Willits said. “And let me tell you, that was hard to make it. I mean, when you walk and run and fight as Titus, it feels so good. But you've seen people cosplay as a Space Marine, right? They can't even walk down a hallway without falling.”
Digging into the details of the process of working with Games Workshop, Willits revealed the Warhammer 40,000 custodian has a system that runs content and assets created by licensees through an approval process, then dedicated staff at Games Workshop work with those licensees to offer feedback.
“They will help steer,” Willits explained. “And even when we're coming up with Tyranid attacks, they're like, oh, that Tyranid doesn't really attack like that, or that Chaos Marine, you can't really have him do that. So we had to adjust things. And we pushed them a little bit. We did push them a little bit."
Saber has already spoken about how the “many lore restrictions” had prevented the development team from improving the scope of Chaos Space Marine customization for Space Marine 2. Willits said he understood why Games Workshop is so protective over Warhammer 40,000, even if it can sometimes cause a slight headache for other companies working with the license.
“They are very protective,” he said. “But you have to be. When you have a universe as big as Games Workshop has with Warhammer, you have to protect it like it's your baby, because it is. And there's millions of people that love this franchise, and if we screw up an emblem or we make the chapter wrong, it's just embarrassing.
“And so I'm very proud of what the team did, by truly respecting and honoring what this franchise is and respecting the fans of that franchise. And when you have the respect of your core fans, everything else is easier.”
Willits also told IGN about the boost he expects the PS5 Pro will give Space Marine 2, and how the breakout success of Space Marine 2 has “changed everything” for the studio. Meanwhile, Warhammer 40,000 superfan Henry Cavill has been playing Space Marine 2 and delivered his verdict, and we also have details on what fans can expect from Space Marine 2’s seasonal post-launch content model. Season 2 runs from October until the end of 2024, and includes a new Operations map, a new enemy, a harder difficulty level, a new weapon, and various other improvements.
Saber recently released Space Marine 2’s game-changing patch 3.0, which made a seemingly innocuous change to the game’s ending that got Warhammer 40,000 fans excited. Fans have also unearthed interesting and unannounced Space Marine 2 cosmetics by datamining the game.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
