Saber Interactive, the studio behind Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, has no plans on increasing the player count in the game’s co-op mode up from 3 players. In an interview with IGN, Saber’s chief creative officer Tim Willits said that the decision to have only three player teams in the co-op Operations mode was made due to balance considerations. According to Willits, the game mode became too easy with four players.
“As we’ve mentioned in a past interview, sticking to three players for PvE game modes (including Siege Mode) has to do with the challenge we’re able to provide, and specifically, the enemies we’re able to throw at you and your friends,” said Willits. “Having four Space Marines together for a PvE mission simply made it too easy, and scaling enemy assaults to justify bringing a fourth player was too great of a challenge.”
It is worth noting that, while the co-op modes in Space Marine 2 only officially support squads of up to three players, industrious modders have managed to get up to 12-player teams going. However, as would be the case with any game mod, this one might end up causing some problems that inexperienced players might have trouble solving. Ultimately, it doesn’t look like Space Marine 2 will get official support for larger squads down the line.
The modder who released the 12-player co-op mod – who goes by Tom or Warhammer Workshop – has praised Saber Interactive’s support for the modding community, however. Speaking to IGN, Tom thanked the studio for the trust and generosity it has shown to the community of modders for Warhmmer 40,000: Space Marine 2.
“Honestly, I’m just kind of in awe of Saber’s support for the modding community,” Tom told IGN. “None of us expected 12-player PvE sessions to be possible this soon — but somehow, here we are. Thanks to their generosity and trust, this huge leap forward is finally here, and it completely changes what we can do.”
It is worth noting that the upcoming horde-styled game mode, dubbed Siege Mode, will also only feature 3-player squads. “We don’t have such plans at this time,” said Willits when asked by IGN whether the studio would consider upping the team size for for the game mode.
Mod support was added to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 earlier this month, with the studio having released its tool, dubbed Integration Studio. In a post on the game’s official Discord channel, game director Dmitry Grigorenko said that the tool would allow players to accomplish grander things than the 12-player co-op mod.
“Even the model exporter and 12-player co-op ops pale in comparison — because as of today, we’re releasing the official Integration Studio for public use,” posted Grigorenko. “This is the exact same editor we use internally for all gameplay development. No more editing files in Notepad and praying you didn’t miss a bracket — Integration Studio makes editing anything SSL-related ten times faster, safer, and more intuitive.”
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Mod support, however, is exclusive to the PC version of the game. Check out our review from back when the action game first came out.
