Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 changed everything for developer Saber Interactive, proving to be one of 2024's surprise hits, moving over 4.5 million copies in its first month on the market. Publisher Focus Entertainment seems pretty chuffed, and IP-holder Games Workshop is clearly the most thrilled of all, making a tidy extra £18 million through royalty revenue alone
Games Workshop posted its latest financials (thanks, IGN), which greatly benefited from the game. For the relevant period, it revealed that total royalties income was £26.1 million, up from £5.9 million previously, primarily attributed to Space Marine 2.
Older than the video game industry, Games Workshop's core business is maintaining its lucrative monopoly and stranglehold on the miniature wargaming industry, and it has relentlessly tried to break into video games for decades now. Like Dungeons & Dragons, the Warhammer setting is malleable, and notably, 98% of GW's total licensing revenue comes from the many (sadly, often subpar) video games that use the expansive IP. In a statement, GW said, in part: "We recognise that successes like these for Warhammer are not a given in the world of video games. Clearly, we are looking for the next one."
Have your eyes been opened to the grim darkness of our inevitable Warhammer future by Space Marine 2? Are you as excited about the endless exploration of the 40,000 universe as we are? Do some introductory reading on the setting before entering the comments section below.
[source assets.ctfassets.net, via ign.com]
Comments 20
Space Marine 2 was the first Warhammer game I've ever played. I got so hooked I picked up Darktide and am currently loving that as well. Wil definitely be looking for more on the horizon!
Darktide absolutely rules and I hope some of these space marine fans try it.
I've played a bit of Space Marine 2 on my PS5 Pro, and it's very impressive so far. But I wanted to play Space Marine 1 first before I continued the second, so I went with the Steam version to play on my Steam Deck OLED and it's so much fun.
The series gives me Gears of War 1-3 vibes. I can't believe I never heard of it until recently. I'm now a fan and looking forward to any new releases in the future.
I'm really enjoying darktide as it's one of those games that keeps on giving. Space marine 2 is great fun while it lasts but it's very short and I'm finding the co-op to be very frustrating as players just won't work together (the community is much worse than HD2 which is top notch.) Also I find the graphics to be quite smeary in performance mode and distracting. I hope the ps5 Pro users have better fidelity because other than the very short campaign and sub par fidelity it's a great game.
Yeah unfortunately a lot ok the 40k games do tend to feel subpar, but there are some absolute bangers out there as well. Space Marine is a lot of fun, and judging from the comments above, Darktide would be one to pick up to. Then you've got the SpaceHulk games, which I enjoy, and of course the Dawn of War games which I have find memories of.
Not surprised that Space Marine has boosted royalties so much, and the knock on affect of getting people back into the hobby, or picking up the hobby for the first time will also make lots of money.
Be warned though, the tabletop game is like plastic crack. You'll be spending ungodly amounts of money of little plastic figures and create a huge backlog of minis to build and paint.
@Northern_munkey honestly the pro patch for space marine 2 is game changing in terms of the graphics. The performance mode was definitely a very smooth blurry image in places, especially on bigger screens but after the patch it's super sharp even on details in the distance. I'd say it's one of the most impressive pro graphics upgrades so far.
Warhammer is such a bizarre IP because it has such a wealth of lore and history behind it and yet everyhing is a coin toss between good and dire, with the majority landing on the later side.
@Steeleye50 Check out Vermintide 2 if you are enjoying Darktide. Its the old world take on the same system but with skaven and swords.
@Northern_munkey Hi buddy, is Darktide a digital game only, I am looking for it having enjoyed SM2 but can't see it anywhere but Xbox?
@Mostik it's digital only on playstation, I couldn't find any talk of a physical release of the game.
@Mostik indeed its digital only for now...
@SirCecilNiplewhip @Northern_munkey Thank you Gents!
Shoutout for Warhammer Boltgun and Warhammer Shootas blood and teeth also, great games 👍
SM2 is the only 40K game I've played, but it was definitely a good ol' romp. The campaign was pretty short and I didn't have much interest in the multiplayer, but that's totally fine. My only real complaint is the performance mode, which upscaled an internal resolution of 720p, which is just too low a resolution to upscale. No Machine Spirit can fix that. Everything looked smudgy, so I ended up playing the whole campaign in quality mode (which looked spectacular).
Well, they can start by commissioning a physical edition of Rogue Trader. That would really make my day!
While I understand that Warhammer at its core is a multiplayer game, when it comes to video games I prefer to play solo. I hope they put a couple of single player dedicated projects together. Most of the Warhammer games that are good are centered around multiplayer.
Great game (SM2) but I'm curious why other races are not used? Still Space Marines in 40K and those ugly golden something (Custodes or what) in fantasy.
@Ilyn Thanks will definintely do that!
Keep the same sort of gameplay but expand the lore as warhammer has so much of it.
More sci-fi deeper into the lore and darkness.
They should make a rogue trader 2 after the final expansion drops.
I also wouldn't mind a crpg set in the warhammer old world, somewhere like the empire, also made by owlcat.
Space Marine 1 was such a brilliant game especially when on hard mode that was a challenge and the multiplayer was okay but got a little boring after while. I managed to plat it on PS3 though just couldn't get the trophy for the chaos levels they were too dam hard.
I haven't got round to SM2 yet but I will do once I've finished off my current games
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