While some fans were excited by today’s announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 officially entering development, others feel like it may be a bit too soon due to the lack of content that Space Marine 2 has received since its launch 6 months ago.
A post over on the /r/gaming subreddit discussing the Space Marine 3 development announcement seems pretty split, with some fans just happy to get more Space Marine goodness while others aren’t impressed. “Hope it has more content than 2,” states user Possible-Emu-2913, which to be fair is a perfectly reasonable request. “Yeah this is disappointing news for people still hoping for substantial support for SM2,” responded user -thecheesus-.
For what it’s worth, Focus Entertainment did confirm in the Space Marine 3 development announcement that they will continue to support Space Marine 2 with exciting content and regular updates in the coming years.
It’s important to note that this is an extremely early announcement for Space Marine 3. For comparison, Space Marine 2 was announced at The Game Awards in December 2021, and just released in September 2024, meaning there was almost three years between the announcement and its subsequent release. Assuming today’s reveal means development has literally just begun, it could be even longer until Space Marine 3 actually releases.
Some fans in the subreddit feel as though Saber and Focus should take the opportunity to release some narrative campaign DLC and expansions for Space Marine 2, arguing that the game “dropped as a solid platform short of content, with the wheels greased for significant additions to expand the game.” Of course, not everyone agrees, with fans pointing out that they’d rather they focus on singular full-price games rather than bite-sized DLC drops over the next few years.
Realistically, this should be a best of both worlds scenario. Not all games receive support this long after release, so knowing that Space Marine 2 is going to continue to get some updates and content while the follow-up is already in development regardless of how that content sells is a rare win for fans in the industry these days.
For me personally, I just can’t wait to see what enemy faction will be at the forefront of Space Marine 3. Orks and Tyranids, while vastly different, are similar in the sense that they are both “zerg-like” in that they have mass numbers that have kind of led to the horde onslaught-style gameplay the series has utilized in the first two games.
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 3 is currently in development with no expected release timeframe.
