Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Saber Interactive have issued an apology to disgruntled fans over the game’s controversial $5 Voice Pack DLC, making it free for all and offering refunds to customers.
The debut Chapter Voice Pack sparked Space Marine 2’s first proper backlash, with some even accusing Focus and Saber of false advertising. It includes 450 re-recorded voicelines and a unique Space Marine Head cosmetic for the Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Black Templars chapters, and was only available as a standalone purchase (much to the annoyance of some fans). But it’s the way these new voice lines are incorporated into the game that caused an “overwhelmingly negative” Steam user review rating for the DLC.
Even with an equipped DLC voice line, Space Marine 2 reverts to the class’ default voice when interacting with objectives, like when searching a Cadian’s body for codes in Inferno. This was unexpected and, in gameplay, makes for a jarring switch. It means the Ultramarine standard voice lines still play for all the dialogue related to interactive elements within missions, so your Space Marine’s voice will flip flop back and forth, which feels awkward and janky. Meanwhile, some said they felt misled by the 450 re-recorded voice lines number on the Steam page, believing this to include re-recorded voice lines across all languages, not just one.
The backlash to the voice pack soured what might have been a positive time for Space Marine 2, given the addition of the Techmarine playable class alongside patch 12.0. Instead, Space Marine 2 suffered its first meaningful community uproar since its record-breaking launch in 2024. Space Marine 2 has been a huge success for Focus, Saber, and Warhammer owner Games Workshop, and is credited with leading an army of new fans to the hobby. It’s so successful that Games Workshop has made Titus, the game’s protagonist, the poster boy of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game. Space Marine 3 was announced as in development soon after Space Marine 2 came out. So this DLC issue came as something of a surprise.
Now, Focus and Saber have finally addressed the situation, issuing a joint statement to fans in a post on social media.
“Dear Space Marine 2 players,” the statement began. “We heard your feedback regarding the Chapter Voice Pack DLC and wanted to address it. It’s obvious this DLC has failed to meet your expectations and we are sorry about that. Delivering quality content – free or not – is a priority for us.
“This is why we’ve decided to offer a refund to all owners of the DLC, and to make it free from now on. We are currently setting up the refund with platforms owners and will come back soon with more info. Always grateful for your dedication to our game.”
In a recent interview with IGN, Saber development chief Tim Willits denied the suggestion that the priority is now the development of Space Marine 3, promising more content to come.
“No, we actually just released a big update and it’s still going strong,” Willits said, referring to the Techmarine update. “Were we at number four on the top sales? So it’s still doing great for us. And we just released a big update. And like World War Z, we’re still making content for that, while the team obviously works on Space Marine 3.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
feedzy_import_tag feedzy_import_tag
About the Author
