Back in 2018, the folks at Saber Interactive, known for their work on the Halo series, were tinkering with a concept for a game centered around Donald Trump. This ambitious, yet ultimately shelved idea, named Trump Fu, was essentially a whimsical twist on the Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn formula.
Despite Shaq Fu’s lackluster performance, which eventually led to Donald Trump’s game concept being abandoned, it surprisingly opened doors for Saber. The company found itself with a lucrative project—NBA Playgrounds—thanks, in part, to the perfectly timed launch on the Nintendo Switch.
Saber Interactive, founded in 2001, has built a solid reputation as a versatile game studio capable of leading its projects and assisting in others’. Over the years, it has seen its fair share of success. Their first major acclaim came with the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, a beloved remaster of the legendary Xbox game from 2001. Saber continued to make its mark by contributing to Halo: The Master Chief Collection and tasting recent success with the release of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 in September 2024, a third-person shooter that made waves.
However, amid these achievements, the studio flirted with an idea for a Donald Trump game, inspired in part by an unexpected suggestion from Shaquille O’Neal. After finishing Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Karch engaged in a conversation with Shaq, who pitched a game where he would play a detective. Though Karch was not immediately enthused by Shaquille’s idea, he suggested a sequel to Shaq Fu, which eventually became a reality.
Saber Interactive has quite the history of creating celebrity-themed fighting games. They launched Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn in 2018, followed by an amusing attempt at Barack Obama-themed downloadable content called Barack Fu: The Adventures of Dirty Barry. However, as Karch humorously admitted, “absolutely nobody played” this particular DLC.
As for Trump Fu, Saber Interactive developed the concept during Trump’s presidency. The story revolved around Trump experiencing betrayal from his cabinet, leading to a situation where he needs to escape from the Mexican desert back to the U.S. Although this concept never came to fruition, Karch also toyed with the idea of a similar game centered around Vladimir Putin, which likewise failed to materialize.
Despite Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn failing to capture audiences, its creation allowed Saber to pivot into developing NBA Playgrounds, a sports game that launched in May 2017 on several platforms, including the then-new Nintendo Switch. The Switch’s limited library of games at that early stage gave NBA Playgrounds a prime spot in the market, and it quickly became one of the top-sellers on the eShop. Reflecting on this successful venture, Karch fondly recounted how the game earned them “a lot of money,” so much so that he could purchase a Gulfstream 280 jet in 2022 for a cool $23 million.
