Fans ofWarhammer 40,000games have been served well recently, as not only did the recentSpace Marine 2sell over six million copies as of January 2025, 6 months have barely passed since its release, and it already has a sequel on the way. Publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Saber Interactive have just announced the development ofWarhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3, and although it sounds like it just went into production, it’s a far cry from the decade separating the first twoSpace Marineentries.Space Marine 3is on its way, and that’s great news.
The initial announcement forSpace Marine 3was limited to a brief video declaring the game’s existence and a couple of paragraphs promising that it would be more of what made the first two games special. Another cinematic campaign and at least one ofSpace Marine’s multiplayer modes, whether competitive or cooperative, will be packaged into a third-person shooter/hack-and-slash frame, just like the first twoSpace Marinegames, and that’s all aSpace Marine 3needs. It’s still surprising to hear this announcement so soon afterSpace Marine 2’s launch, but hopefully it’s meant as a familiar statement of intent.
Space Marine 3 Could Become Warhammer’s Leading Game Series
Following Call of Duty’s Example Could Make Space Marine A Near-Yearly Hit
Annual game franchises are becoming increasingly rare due to the climbing expectations for AAA video games. Sports and wrestling series still eke out yearly entries, andLike A Dragonhas kept up its streak for a while if re-releases andJudgementspin-offs count. Some gaming icons likeFinal Fantasy,Sonic the Hedgehog, andSuper Marioalso tend to launch something each year, but theking of this practice remainsCall of Duty. Activision-Blizzard, and now Microsoft, have managed to keep up the streak, and while it’s unclear how long it will last,CoDis still a constant presence on game retailer shelves.
Technically,Warhammeris another such franchise, though that’s more because Games Workshop is willing to let many partner studios work with its license at the same time. BetweenWarhammer Fantasy,Age of Sigmar,Blood Bowl, andWarhammer 40k, there’s always something coming out, butSpace Marine 2’s exceptional success recently may have motivated a change to the status quo. The idea behindSpace Marine 3being announced so soon afterSpace Marine 2may be to quickly turn theSpace Marineseries into a regularly-released franchise. It may not reachCall of Duty’s output, butSpace Marinealready has good reasons to push for it.
Third-Person Shooters Have A CoD-Shaped Hole For Space Marine To Fill
Striking while the iron is hot and filling in niches are the two best ways to sell games, andSpace Marineis fortunate enough to come out at a time when it can do both. Thanks to the aforementioned tightening of the AAA gaming space, the sci-fi third-person shooters of the firstSpace Marine’s heyday are much less common, and demand for them is still evidently high.Gears of War E-Daycould beatSM3to the punch, but that’s it, and both games have their own strengths. IfSpace Marine 3recyclesSM2’s assets and gameplay, it should be able to reach its market fast.
Space Marine Has Serious Staying Power
It’s a good thing thatSpace Marine 2is still releasing multiplayer assets as part of its post-launch support, then, because they could see use for quite a long time. Even though the currentSpace Marinestoryline is focused on the Ultramarine Titus, there are countless other Chapters and warbands that could be giventheir own40kgame under theSpace Marinename.Space Marinemay not have the multiple development studios necessary to matchCall of Duty’s yearly output, but it has the material to run for just as long, andSpace Marine 3’s surprise announcement may herald exactly that.
