As layoffs continue to reshape the gaming industry, Saber Interactive chief creative officer Tim Willits has issued a pointed message to large North American studios: stop confining their operations to Texas, California, and New York, and instead embrace global talent spread across regions they have long been reluctant to engage. Speaking with Gamer24h ahead of Gamescom, Willits argued that the traditional model of concentrating hundreds of expensive developers in a single geography is one of the primary reasons major studios are struggling while Saber has managed to thrive.
The comments come against a backdrop of persistent workforce reductions since 2022. Even if the pace of layoffs appears to have eased, their severity has not diminished, with Microsoft recently making 1,600 staff redundant as part of what it termed its great reset while promising investors an additional 1,600 departures within a year. Rising development costs, longer production timelines, and intensifying competition have left many large studios questioning how they build and fund their games.
The Cost of the Traditional Studio Model
“You have 200 people that you’re paying $15,000 per person per month, which gets you way over two million,” Willits said. “They’re all working on a game and you do not need 200 people before you have a vertical slice, so you’re burning money.” He acknowledged the appeal of full production—having “200 of the most highly skilled, amazing people ever”—but warned that shipping a game forces studios to immediately reassign those same employees to new projects while spending millions more years away from release.
The pattern has become familiar across the industry, with teams disbanded either just before launch or immediately after. Willits noted that such tactics retain no talent and force each new project to begin largely from scratch, stripping away valuable institutional knowledge.
A Philosophy Built on Work for Hire
“If you are a studio that has made mega hits, but it takes you five years to make a mega hit, it is totally okay if you do some work for hire. It doesn’t make your mega hit AAA game any worse.”
Tim Willits, Saber Interactive
Rather than abandoning smaller or funded work, Willits pointed to Saber’s own approach as a proven alternative. The developer continues to take on remaster projects even while producing major licensed titles and original games. “Our remasters are very reliable,” he said. “We get paid, IOI makes money.” For its original properties, Saber keeps teams small for extended periods before committing fully.
“We have multiple games that we start at all these studios, even with a team of five folks,” Willits explained. “We don’t put an entire team in a project until after the vertical slice.” When projects grow, the studio brings in partners who can co-invest, co-fund, or work for hire to spread financial risk.
A Call to Embrace Global Talent
The most striking element of Willits’ message was his encouragement for North American and British publishers to overcome their reluctance to work with talent in regions like South America. He urged studios to acquire development teams worldwide rather than relying solely on familiar locations.
“Traditional North American and even British publishers are afraid of certain parts of the world,” Willits said. “They’re afraid of South America. They’re like ‘We don’t speak Spanish or Portuguese’. Get over that and stop that fear.” He highlighted that South America shares a similar time zone with North America, making collaboration far more practical than many studios assume.
Willits also challenged mega studios to produce small games, pointing to affordable Steam titles built by tiny teams. “Do that. Why can’t a mega studio from Santa Monica make six of those? One could be a hit.” When asked whether any project would be too small for Saber, he did not hesitate: “No,” he said, citing how the Snowrunner franchise grew from an idea developed by a single person.
Looking Ahead
Saber’s willingness to operate at every scale and with partners worldwide reflects a pragmatic approach that has helped it weather an industry many peers have found difficult. Willits’ remarks suggest a broader call for studios laid off from large teams to consider either building small games quickly or joining globally distributed development structures.
As the industry continues to grapple with economic pressures and workforce uncertainty, these comments may resonate with developers weighing their next moves. Whether major studios will heed the advice remains to be seen, but Saber’s model offers a visible example of an alternative path through turbulent times.
1 comment