Saber CCO Tim Willits on layoffs, physical games, and rising console prices

Saber Interactive CCO Tim Willits sat down with press at Gamescom to weigh in on some of the biggest storylines hitting the games industry right now — studio layoffs, the death of physical media, and consoles that cost more than ever.

On the layoff crisis, Willits points to overspecialization as a core problem. Studios built around a single large game, with hundreds of people siloed into narrow roles, are structurally fragile — "they're going to really struggle to survive," he said, because you simply don't need that headcount before a project hits a vertical slice. Saber's answer is to spread resources across a wide scope spectrum, mixing big bets like Space Marine 2 and the upcoming Jurassic Park: Survival with remasters and small experimental titles. He cited SnowRunner — now a "mega franchise" with over 46,000 Steam reviews — as proof that a single developer's side experiment can turn into something massive. His advice: take talented developers who are between projects and put them on a $5 game. Take the risk. On physical games, Willits said he was "surprised how upset people were" about Sony's announcement that it will end physical disc support in 2028. He personally hasn't bought a physical game in a long time, but acknowledged Saber still makes "a lot of money" from physical sales, particularly in Europe. He floated a quirky idea for the future: some kind of "AI box" that players could use to upload and display their entire game libraries — a nod to the shelf-display culture that physical collectors love. On console prices, Willits called it "shocking how expensive" new hardware has become. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S are now over $150 more than their 2020 launch prices, Nintendo is hiking Switch 2 pricing in September, and a new Ampere Analysis report warns that if next-gen consoles land at $1,000 or more, the market impact could be severe. Willits said it will "be interesting to see" how Sony and Microsoft handle pricing as they move toward their next hardware generations.

Willits spent 24 years at id Software, from 1995 to 2019, before joining Saber. His perspective on lean, flexible studio structures carries weight given Saber's track record of shipping across wildly different project scales — from licensed remasters to original IP. The studio's model runs counter to the trend of mega-studios doubling down on single tentpole projects, and Willits clearly sees that as a competitive advantage rather than a limitation. He also addressed AI in development separately, saying Saber will never fire staff and replace them with AI — and that id Software would "of course" have used AI tools back in the day if they'd existed.

Willits wrapped his Gamescom comments on a surprisingly upbeat note, calling this "actually, honestly, a good time" for the medium despite the industry turbulence. Whether the broader market agrees likely depends on where console prices land when the next hardware generation finally arrives.