Space Marine 2 dev making new AAA game and it might be Transformers

Hasbro has signed up Space Marine 2 developer Saber Interactive to make a game based on a ‘tentpole’ IP and we’re going to bet it’s not My Little Pony.

Toy firm Hasbro is one of those companies, like Disney, that you really feel should have had more involvement with the games industry from the beginning. It did have its own publishing division for a while – it bought MicroProse and what was left of Atari – but it didn’t last for long and was never very successful.

Nowadays, they, like Disney, just farm out their various licences to other companies, and while that’s generally not been that successful the obvious exception is Larian Studios making Baldur’s Gate 3 – although they’ve since made it clear they want nothing more to do with Dungeons & Dragons, or licences in general.

Hasbro will now need to find other developers to make future entries and while they’ve announced nothing so far, they have revealed that they’ve signed a deal with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 maker Saber Interactive for a ‘AAA’ game based on one of Hasbro’s ‘tentpole IPs.’

There’s no indication of which IP is involved but Hasbro hasn’t been shy about talking about their Dungeons & Dragons plans in the past, so if it was that they’d probably just say outright. That doesn’t rule it out entirely though and while Saber don’t have the experience to make something like Baldur’s Gate 4 they could conceivably be making some sort of D&D related action game.

‘We have many new digital collaborations in the works, but I’m especially excited to announce this one today, being a personal fan of many of this team’s games,’ said Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks in an earnings call with investors.

‘Hasbro and Saber Interactive will be collaborating on an all-new video game partnership developed by the team behind 2024’s megahit, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Combining high-octane single-player action and amazing multiplayer with Saber’s Swarm tech, this new AAA title, based on one of our tentpole IPs, is sure to be a hit.’

That doesn’t give much away but it does imply that whatever the game is it’s something at least in the same ballpark as Space Marine 2. (It also suggests that Space Marine 3 isn’t going to happen anytime soon.)

In terms of what IP could be involved, the front rumours are Transformers, G.I. Joe, Power Rangers, Dungeons & Dragons, and Magic: The Gathering.

Hasbro has recently started a new line of indie-esque, faux retro games, which has so far included G.I. Joe and Power Rangers games, which may imply they don’t feel those properties deserve a AAA budget at the moment.

Magic: The Gathering is certainly popular enough but creating an action game out of the genre-defining trading card game is fraught with potential problems, including whether the core audience would even be interested in such a thing.

As fans, we’d like to think that makes Transformers the most likely IP, especially given a planned title by Quake Wars developer Splash Damage was recently cancelled and there hasn’t been a big budget game since the Activision games of the Xbox 360 era.

There were hints that those titles, which are now out of print because Activision no longer owns the licence, were being brought back but despite some evidence to that effect nothing has materialised.

After the failure of the recent Transformers One movie (which is actually surprisingly good) Hasbro vowed to give up funding movies itself and simply licence out its IP, as it does with games.

Given its many movie failures, it implied that gaming would be an increasing focus in the coming years and it seems whatever Saber Interactive is working on may be the first clear evidence of that.

For the record though, the other properties which Hasbro owns include M.A.S.K., Monopoly, Furby, Nerf guns, Mr Potato Head, Play-Doh, Twister, Battleship, Cluedo, Ouija, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, My Little Pony, Peppa Pig, and PJ Masks.

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