Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and Space Marine 3 are not competing for resources internally at Saber Interactive, one of its chief developers has insisted.

Space Marine 2 may well be the most successful Warhammer 40,000 video game ever made. It sold over 7 million copies less than a year after going on sale, and, according to Saber exec Tim Willits, changed everything for the studio. Even Games Workshop itself has talked about the money it’s made from Space Marine 2, and protagonist Titus is now leading the charge on the next narrative expansion of the Warhammer 40,000 setting.

Space Marine 3 was announced in March, six months after Space Marine 2 came out. Some Space Marine 2 fans were left concerned about the timing of the announcement, but Games Workshop has said Space Marine 3 "is likely years away from release,” and Saber has promised to continue to support Space Marine 2 for some time to come.

Speaking on the latest episode of Games Workshop’s Warhammer TV show, Deep Strike, Saber Interactive creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick was asked why Space Marine 3 was announced so early instead of going down the DLC route (story DLC expansions, for example) for Space Marine 2.

“Announcing a third game doesn’t in any way mean that we’re not going to continue creating content for the existing game,” Hollis-Leick responded.

“The thing is the development cycles for these projects are long. For Space Marine 2 it was something like four years. And so, for Space Marine 3 it’s going to be the same.

“We announced it to in one way keep people aware of the fact we’re going to continue this, that there’s going to be more coming. But we’re also doing the same thing with DLC. There’s lots already been created and there’s lots more to come. They’re definitely not competing for resources.”

That’s a crowdpleasing comment, but what is the actual situation when it comes to Space Marine 2 support? In August, publisher Focus Entertainment revealed Space Marine 2’s second year of DLC, confirming patches 10 all the way up to 15.

Patch 15 takes players up to the end of the second quarter of next year (June 2026). Highlights include the new Techmarine class, now set for release during the first quarter of 2026, a new Battle Barge expansion during the same period, and a new Siege map coming Q2 2026.

Space Marine 3, however, looms large over the horizon. Based on Oliver Hollis-Leick’s comments, we’re looking at a four-year development cycle, which means we may not see the game until 2029. That’s a big gap!

But what can we expect from Space Marine 3? Will we see new factions? Will Saber expand co-op beyond the three-player limit? Will there be actual meaningful PvP?

Most fans believe the Necrons will make an appearance in Space Marine 3. That’s because one mission in Space Marine 2 sees Titus and co delve deep within the bowels of an alien planet, which contains ancient and mysterious wall markings that are a clear nod to the Necrons. Some players even suspected the xenos would make a surprise appearance as a third enemy faction in the Space Marine 2 campaign, given the nature of the mission.

Indeed, it turns out that the Space Marine 2 story sort of revolves around the Necrons. The Techpriest who goes off the rails in the story is trying to use an ancient Necron artifact to nullify the influence of Chaos by closing off the warp, the hell dimension from which Chaos spews forth. At least that’s what the Techpriest thinks the artifact does (it doesn't, then it does).

In the episode of Deep Strike, Oliver Hollis-Leick was asked straight up if this nod to the Necrons means they’ll turn up at some point. He was coy in his answer.

“One of the things about this universe is it’s vast,” he said. “It’s almost timeless. And so if you go digging deep down below the surface of a planet, you could find all kinds of things. And so finding what appears to be a Necron tomb, or at least Necron technology below the surface of a world, is not an outrageous thing to happen. But also in the narrative they’re dealing with what seems to be Blackstone-like technology, although it’s never expressly stated. And so that directly links to the Necrons.

“As to whether we’ll see any more of them, that I cannot say. But it certainly was a nice thing to see at the end of the game there.”

Oliver Hollis-Leick then went on to explain why Saber included all those cool Necron bits and bobs in Space Marine 2 for players to discover.

“It’s really important to show that the Imperium don’t know everything,” he said. “They seem incredibly advanced, incredibly well equipped, but there is an enormous amount about this galaxy and the history of the galaxy they simply don’t know, and never will know. Even the audience who read these books, even they don’t know. It’s not stated. That’s one of the things I love so much about this universe, is that there’s so much ambiguity. And so I liked including something like that in the game, so we get a sense of the mystery still out there.”

Two characters from Space Marine 2 we won't see in Space Marine 3 alive and kicking are Sevastus Acheran and Lieutenant Chairon, who were killed off-camera via a lore post on the Warhammer Community website.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.