Halo developer Saber Interactive was once working on a Donald Trump game. The idea for the project—which Saber ultimately abandoned—can be indirectly traced back to Shaquille O'Neal.
Founded in 2001, Saber Interactive developed a reputation as a versatile studio capable of both leading projects and co-development services. While the company had multiple successes over the years, its first big break came with the critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, a remaster of Microsoft's iconic 2001 Xbox FPS. The company later played a supporting role in the making of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and has most recently found success with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, a hit third-person shooter that debuted in September 2024. In between Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Space Marine 2, the studio wanted to make a Donald Trump game. That's according to Saber co-founder and CEO Matthew Karch, who said as much in a recent interview with Game File's Stephen Totilo. This idea isn't something that happened overnight, but can instead be tracked back to Karch's fateful meeting with Shaquille O'Neal, which happened sometime after Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was released in 2011. During their initial get-together, Shaq pitched the idea for a game starring him as a detective. Karch wasn't really sold on the concept, but eventually proposed something else, a sequel to EA's 1994 game Shaq Fu.