Saber's Tim Willits on AAA Budgets: 'We Can Just Do It Smarter' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 3 days ago / 2,221 Views
Saber Interactive Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits speaking with The Game Business discussed how the company has been able to keep its budget under control at a time when many AAA games end up overbudget and delayed.
"We’re very good at making sure that we scope our projects to focus on the fun and to focus on what really needs to happen," said Willits. "I play these other games, and I can see these virtual dollars flying out of the screen, and I can see how much money they spend on the dumbest stuff, and I’m like, ‘Oh, God, that’s expensive.’
"We also have a culture that allows all of our employees to work on the titles where they’re most needed. There are big development studios where teams get siloed. They’re like, ‘I’m Team A, and I only work on this game.’ And you have these North American developers with 200 employees working on one title. That’s not going to work. Because everyone knows you don’t need all 200 people in the very beginning and at the very. So, you need to work on other projects. You need to expand. That’s one thing that we’re very good at.
"And then we also are very smart when it comes to where we do our development. We find super talented people in places that are honestly a little more affordable. But we have experience grabbing resources where we need them, moving people where they are most useful, and the employees love it. People can work on everything from John Wick to SnowRunner to Space Marine 3. So, it’s really been a culture and a philosophy and a business direction that has made us successful."
He added, "Sometimes I feel like the guy spinning the plates. And I’m spinning it up and then I see one starting to wobble and I run over. That’s kind-of how we work. We’re a little crazy, but we seem to pull it off. We find the right leads that have the right vision and passion for a project, and then we give them the time they need. Sometimes we get games done really fast, sometimes it takes a little longer. So be it. But we focus on what’s really important. We focus on the quality experience.
"And we’re not afraid to take risks. We’ve had huge success with small games. I mean, look at MudRunner and SnowRunner. SnowRunner was literally made by a handful of people, and it has made hundreds of millions of dollars. And then you have Space Marine 2, which is a huge AAA game. I know how much that game costs, and I know how much other games have cost that have been made by big AAA teams, and we can just do it smarter."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Here's an idea...
Take graphics and scope back to the PS4/XOne generation (but at 4K and 120-240fps output)
That's it...
To be clear...
I prefer playing 5-8yo games on modern PC hardware over "NEW" games
RE2/3/4, DeadSpace, FF7Remake, GoW, Gears... all these games look amazing still
We don't have to keep pushing the fidelity and density envelope
The UE5 look to everything really harmed artistic expresssion and diversity in games.
I mean, the UE5 "look" isn't really a thing. UE5 can look however you want it. A lot of devs just use it for more realistic aesthetics bwcause it comes packed with the tools to do so well. Just like UE4 and UE3 before it which were dominant players in the 7th and 8th gens.
And Capcom seems to be doing very well pushign tech AND making great games. It's about smart team management and resource allocation.
PS3 graphics with PS5 level VRAM would look great (ala God of War 3 or Mass Effect Legendary etc.)
Sounds like alot of words for saying Good management :)
Imagine if this guy worked at xbox, for the last 10 years. I bet you things would look alot different from now.
He's right of course. Modern AAA's waste so much dev time, and therefore salaried months added onto the budget, on extraneous sub-systems most players will never even see or care about, sometimes spend months on these features only to cut them. They also chase graphics way too high even knowing they are already over-budget.
The sad part is barely much difference between Last gen and current gen games yet Current gen games cost alot more to make.
Any more credit you'd like to steal Tim?
rude.
a noted "serial credit thief" doesn't need politeness. and nobody who has worked with him in the past really has positive things to say about him, to an almost impressive extent.
