Saber CEO’s alleged comments raise eyebrows after he said games should be about “glory kills” and not “imposing standards”

A comment on a Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 video purporting to be from Saber CEO Matthew Karch has caused a stir, with Karch suggesting that games should be about “glory kills” rather than “imposing a set of morals on gamers.”

The comment, which came from an account named “MatthewKarch” posing as the CEO of Saber, was made in a video by streamer Asmongold titled “Space Marine 2 is a reminder of what we lost.”

The video is a response to another video from YouTuber Legendary Drops, who described the recently released Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 as “oozing so much masculinity, I feel like I’ve been living in a desert for the past few years.” Asmongold passionately agrees in his nearly hour-long response.

The “MatthewKarch” account’s response notes that they love Asmongold’s videos, before going on to provide more details about the developer’s intentions for Space Marine 2.

“I love your videos,” the account wrote. “When we signed the deal to make Space Marine 2, all I wanted was a throwback game. We were given the opportunity to work on something that was inherently ‘old school.’ I can’t even understand a lot of the current games we play today. They’re too complex and too much of an investment. We worked on Halo back in the day and that game could be boiled down to the most basic gun barrels, but it was completely addictive.

“That’s what we wanted to recapture. I hope that games like Space Marine 2 and Wukong are the beginning of a return to a time when games were just about fun and immersion. I worked as the Chief Operating Officer at Embracer for a while, and I’ve seen games there that made me cry with their over-the-top attempts to message gamers or impose morals.

“We just want to do some glory kills and get the heart rate up a little bit. To me, that’s what games should be about.”

Another account, claiming to be creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick, also commented on Asmongold’s video: “Everything you say about the story and the characters resonates so strongly with our actual approach. It’s great to hear you name the exact things we’ve been consciously focusing on. It’s been four and a half years of intense work and passion and watching videos like this makes it all worthwhile.”

Eurogamer reached out to Saber to verify the legitimacy of these accounts, but a company representative said it had “no comment on this matter.” Eurogamer also reached out to Karch directly, but has not yet heard back.

Five days after posting, the comments on the video are still live, with MatthewKarch’s response receiving 15,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments praising his work. “This is what we, the gamers, the audience, not the non-existent ‘modern audience’ want,” it reads.

Space Marine 2 has certainly received praise since its release last week. Our Eurogamer review praised the game’s “creepy” combat, but criticized its characterization. “Saber clearly wants you to see its characters as more than just metallic meatheads, and I liked how the campaign hints at the characters’ emotions by their attempts not to show them,” it reads. “Unfortunately, it never goes much further than this, and the campaign drifts more and more into tropes and fanservice as it goes along. It’s still enjoyable, but doesn’t quite transcend itself in the way its first half suggests.”

However, Asmongold and Legendary Drops praise the game for its overtly masculine themes and for – finally! – targeting a heterosexual male audience.

Karch’s comments about imposing values ​​have raised eyebrows, particularly following criticism of Black Myth: Wukong. This criticism centred on the anti-woke sentiment surrounding that game, following reports of misogyny at the studio and a leaked document sent to streamers asking them not to include “politics” or “feminist propaganda” in their messaging.

Space Marine 2 is Saber’s first release after its split from Embracer, which sold its assets for $247 million to withdraw from Russia and “reduce its geopolitical risks.”