Space Marine 2 CEO says “imposing morals” on gamers makes him want to cry

Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch appears to claim that Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 is a “throwback game” that avoids “overblown attempts at messaging or imposing morals on gamers.” Karch’s supposed comments are in response to a Zack ‘Asmongold’ video on the shooter, which reacts to the notion that Space Marine 2 is a ‘reminder of what we lost’ in videogames.

Now that Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 is finally here, Saber’s take on the franchise’s depressing grimdark universe has enticed players old and new. Following a seriously impressive launch (the co-op game has been doing extraordinarily well on Steam, with a peak of over 225,000 players) developers behind the shooter are reacting to the overall response, including a YouTube account that appears to belong to Karch.

“Hey man. CEO of Saber here. I love your videos,” the account writes in response to Asmongold’s above clip. “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. 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.

“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. 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.”

Space Marine 2 creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick has also responded to the video. “Hearing everything you have to say about the story and characters resonates so strongly with our actual approach. It’s great to hear you calling out the exact things that we intentionally focused on. It was four and a half years of intense work and passion and watching videos like this makes it all worth it.”

We have reached out to Saber Interactive to confirm whether or not the account is Karch’s, and will update this news piece when we know more.

If Space Marine 2 was your first foray into the grimdark universe we’ve got all the best Warhammer 40k games to scratch your new itch, alongside some ideal Space Marine 2 builds to set you up online.

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