The development rights to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary were acquired by Saber Interactive in a rather ingenious way… the story is worth summarizing!

Matthew Karch, CEO of Saber, told Game File editor Stephen Totilo how the studio came to be. The team became known for Will Rock and TimeShift, but then they were given the opportunity to sign on for a remaster of the first Halo. Saber took a risk: Microsoft was told by the studio that they would take on the project… for free! “I said I’d do it for free because it’s Halo. It’s the biggest franchise in the world at the time. I said, ‘It’s like putting a Harvard diploma on your wall. Everybody in the world is going to want to work with me after they see I worked on this last Halo game, and it’s going to open doors. So I’m going to suck it up and do it at a loss,” Karch said.

But Microsoft didn’t accept the project because they had to pay a price. Saber said $4 million… and they got the project, which was released for Xbox 360 in 2011. Although Karch said it was free, their agreement was that they would get royalties from sales, but due to certain conditions imposed by Microsoft, the royalties were zero. Nevertheless, they got the remaster of Halo 2, and the studio was also tasked with porting the remaster of the first part to Xbox One in Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

However, Microsoft did not send a contract until the release of the collection. Karch, in turn, did not sign it, demanding a change of attitude to the royalties for the first part. The Redmond company agreed, and according to Karch, he received tens of millions of dollars. Saber Interactive benefited, and Microsoft was not harmed by Karch’s position. Since then, Saber has been part of Embracer from 2020 until 2024, when it was spun off.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 was another big success for the studio…

Source: PCGamer