It’s certainly fascinating when there are rumors about something that hasn’t even been officially announced yet!
In 2024, an interview conducted by GamesIndustry with Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch accidentally revealed the existence of a Metro game focused exclusively on multiplayer mode. This mention was later removed from the interview, but it revealed that development was taking place at their Argentine subsidiary, Nimble Giant Entertainment (which was later renamed Saber LATAM). Now, according to the Argentine gaming portal PressOver, the future of the title set in the Metro universe is uncertain, as the project has been taken away from Saber LATAM. All of this is happening amid recent management shakeups and layoffs at the studio.
The site went into detail about the title’s troubled development, stating that work began nearly six years ago, the team size exceeded 100 people at its peak, and only 60 remained when responsibility for the project was transferred. The long development cycle was reportedly due in part to a philosophical clash between the multiplayer component and the traditional Metro experience, which the studio struggled to resolve. As a result of losing the project, the division laid off 25 people, continuing the wave of layoffs that had already affected the studio to a lesser extent. The layoffs also affected the Saber LATAM offices in Peru and Uruguay: staff there were also laid off, and the offices closed just a few weeks ago.
Following the recent departure of Andrés Chilkowski, who had long served as CEO and co-founder, there have also been significant changes in the company’s leadership. The position has been taken over by the current COO, Lucas Wall. Although Wall did not mention the Metro project specifically to PressOver, he confirmed that the studio lost a major project. However, this isn’t the only obstacle the studio has faced; its previous releases also struggled to find an audience. The strategy game Star Trek: Infinite was released in 2023 but received no support six months later. Prior to that, their time-traveling multiplayer shooter, Quantum League, also struggled to retain an active player base. The project’s current status is unknown, but there’s a good chance the Metro project will be handed over to another developer and restarted from scratch. In any case, it’s hard to believe the idea would be completely scrapped since the series continues to thrive under 4A Games with the upcoming Metro 2039. If there’s one thing the gaming industry has no shortage of, it’s live-service games.
We recently wrote about Metro 2039 and its release date for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC.
Source: MP1st, Gamesindustry, PressOver
