Space Marine 2's studio boss hopes to see a "reversion" to a time when games didn't impose morals on players

Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch -- or someone claiming to represent him -- has stirred up controversy by commenting on a recent Asmongold YouTube clip in which he decried that videogames are too often built around "messaging" or "imposing morals on players."

"Hey man. Saber CEO here. I love your videos," a user named 'MatthewKarch,' responded to the video. The video is actually a one-hour "reaction" of a 20-minute Legendary Drops video. "When we signed the contract to make Space Marine 2 all I wanted was an old-school game. We got to work on a project that was by nature 'old-school'.

"I don't understand many of the games we play today. They are too complicated and require too much investment. Back in the day we worked on Halo, and it could be reduced to the simplest shooting loops. But, it was addictive. We wanted to recreate that feeling.

"I hope games like Space Marine 2 or Wukong will be the beginning of a return to a simpler time when games were about fun and immersion. I was Chief Operating Officer of Embracer for a while and I saw some games that made me want scream with their overblown attempts to send a message or impose morals on players. We just want to do a few glory kills and raise the heart rate a little. "For me, that's what games should be all about."

It's an unremarkable comment -- I miss my youth -- but the specificity that "imposing morals on players" was immediately used as ammunition in the never ending online culture wars. Hundreds of comments flooded in hailing Karch as the "gaming hero we've all been waiting for," and bemoaning a supposed rise in politics in videogames, while celebrating the underperformances of Dustborn and Concord to prove that games have become "too woke." It also gained traction on social networks.

Some people are unsure if it was Karch who made the comment. Some people pointed out that the YouTube account behind the comment was relatively new, only created in May 2024. Karch, however, has been in business for decades. The comment, and in particular the part where Karch denigrates the work of other developers by saying that their work "made [him] want to cry," is not what you would expect from a head of a major game studio.

Saber Interactive declined to comment whether Karch or an imposter posted the YouTube comment. Karch posted a comment yesterday on LinkedIn which could be interpreted as an indication that he wrote it himself: "Whoever penned that seems pretty sharp," Karch said. It's at least an endorsement of the message. If Karch didn't actually write it, he would have said so.

It's ironic, no matter where the comment came from, that the discussion about "messaging", "imposing values", and "imposing messages" has a Space Marine 2 connection. In 2021, the Warhammer 40,000 company Games Workshop issued a statement explaining "the Imperium of Man is a cautionary story of what could occur should the worst of Humanity’s lust for Power and extreme, unyielding racism set in," as well as explicitly condemning hate symbols and groups within the WH40K Community.