Saber Interactive CCO Tim Willits believes the rising cost of developing games in North America is making traditional AAA production increasingly difficult, arguing that smaller budgets and multiple projects can offer a more sustainable approach.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Willits explained why Saber has increasingly favored an AA development strategy, using global teams and controlled budgets rather than betting everything on a single expensive blockbuster.
Saber Prefers Multiple Smaller Bets Over One Blockbuster
Willits compared Saber’s strategy to slate financing in the movie industry, where investment is spread across several projects instead of relying on one release to recover an enormous budget.
“If you have one guy who has to get a home run every game, you are not going to succeed.”
According to Willits, funding four or five games allows publishers and developers to spread both their resources and financial risk. Some projects can underperform without threatening the entire business if others become successful.
He also argued that development teams need to be more disciplined about scope, saying he sometimes plays games where he can immediately see the “wasted money” i “dollars falling out of the monitor.”
North American Studios Can Burn $2 Million Every Month
Willits highlighted the cost of North American development with a particularly striking comparison.
“Big North American development studios, they run about $2 million plus in burn rate a month. A month. SnowRunner, which has made hundreds of millions of dollars, cost us $6 million to make. That’s literally three months of development time in California.”
For Saber, SnowRunner demonstrates why a controlled development budget can be so valuable. According to Willits, the game cost approximately $6 million to develop while ultimately generating hundreds of millions of dollars.
His comments reflect a wider challenge facing large game developers: as production costs continue to rise, studios are increasingly looking beyond the traditional blockbuster model and toward smaller budgets, global development teams and portfolios of multiple projects to reduce financial risk.
