They say you should never work for free, but in Saber Interactive’s case, offering to do exactly that landed the studio a high-profile project. The news comes from an interview Game File’s Stephen Totilo conducted with Saber co-founder and CEO Matthew Karch, where Karch discussed the challenges of running an independent studio and relying on royalties from working with other studios.
Saber’s early days included work with Ubisoft that Saber made no money from, an FPS game called TimeShift that saw lengthy delays after Activision’s Vivendi acquisition, and a game called Inversion for Bandai Namco. The latter project saw Saber go for long periods of time without pay while Bandai debated about what they wanted from the game.
Karch said Saber’s break came when he learned Microsoft wanted pitches from third-party studios interested in developing a Halo: Combat Evolved remaster for the game’s anniversary. He told an unnamed Xbox executive that Saber could do it for free.
“I said I’d do it for free, because it’s Halo,” Karch said. “It’s the biggest franchise in the world at the time. I said: ‘It’s like putting a Harvard diploma on your wall. Everyone in the world is going to want to work with me after they see that I’ve worked on this last Halo game, and it is going to open up doors. So I’ll suck it up and I’ll do it at a loss.’”
His Xbox contact pushed him to name an actual price, though. Karch said $4 million, assuming the rate was lower than what other studios pitched and knowing he could pull it off in the low-cost development environment in St. Petersburg, Russia–Saber’s headquarters at the time. However, Xbox honored his original pitch after all and included clauses in the Halo remaster contract that essentially meant Saber would earn no royalties for the project.
Karch’s initial prediction, that working on one high-profile project would benefit Saber in the long-term, proved correct when Microsoft returned with another proposition. This time, they asked if Saber would remaster Halo 2 and port Halo: Anniversary Edition to Xbox One for 2014’s Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Microsoft forgot to send the part of the contract that covered the porting project, and Karch said he refused to sign it unless Microsoft removed the clause that reduced Saber’s royalties. The company agreed, and Karch said the royalties from The Master Chief Collection earned Saber “tens of millions” of dollars.
“We were off and running,’ Karch said. “We’ve watched other people make money on our work. Now we’re going to make money on our own.”
Saber continued handling game-port projects for other studios, including putting The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on Nintendo Switch for CD Projekt Red. The studio expanded its in-house development capabilities as well, with the likes of World War Z and its follow-ups, alongside popular mobile sports game Basketball Playgrounds. Embracer Group purchased Saber Interactive in 2020, but in 2024, Karch regained control of the studio after Beacon Entertainment–a company Karch set up for this purchase–bought Saber from Embracer. Saber is currently leading development on the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, though that project’s status and anticipated release date are unknown.
