Back in 2018, Saber Interactive, the minds behind the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, were brewing up a game centered around Donald Trump. The proposed game, titled Trump Fu, was intended to take a page out of the playbook from Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn. Despite both projects hitting a dead end—Shaq Fu didn’t impress, and Trump Fu got shelved—Saber’s foray with Shaq Fu laid the groundwork for a lucrative NBA Playgrounds venture, especially when it debuted on the then-fresh Nintendo Switch.
Once upon a time, the folks at Saber Interactive toyed with the idea of a Trump-themed video game. The roots of this venture can be linked back to none other than Shaquille O’Neal. Since its inception in 2001, Saber established itself as a versatile player in game development, taking on both lead and cooperative projects. They struck gold with Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, a stellar remaster of Microsoft’s 2001 classic. The team further showcased their prowess with their contributions to Halo: The Master Chief Collection and more recently, hit the mark with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, a standout third-person shooter that made waves in September 2024.
Between their work on the Halo series and Space Marine 2, Saber had a rather unexpected aspiration: creating a Donald Trump game. In a chat with Stephen Totilo from Game File, Saber’s CEO and co-founder, Matthew Karch, revealed their ambitions were sparked during a conversation with Shaquille O’Neal post-2011’s release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Shaq initially floated the idea of a game featuring him as a detective, though Karch wasn’t particularly taken with the proposal. Eventually, they pivoted and decided to try revamping EA’s 1994 cult hit, Shaq Fu.
Saber’s journey into celebrity fighting games had some intriguing entries. They launched Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn in 2018, followed by Barack Fu: The Adventures of Dirty Barry in the same year, although the latter didn’t quite catch the audience’s attention. Trump Fu, though teased, never saw the light of day after its initial production in the summer of 2018.
Their 2018 venture, Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn, was fueled by over $450,000 crowdsourced via Indiegogo but unfortunately ended up as one of the least favored games of the year, even boasting a Barack Obama-themed DLC that barely anyone played as per Karch’s own admission.
The Trump Fu storyline entertained the idea of Trump’s own team shipping him off and then having him crash-land in a desert south of the US border, where he’d have to navigate his way back. The project didn’t pan out, and even a subsequent idea for a Putin-themed fighting game fizzled out as well.
Despite the lukewarm response to Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn, Saber scored a solid victory with NBA Playgrounds, launched in May 2017. Releasing on the new Nintendo Switch, NBA Playgrounds found itself in a sweet spot, dominating the eShop thanks to its strategic release during the console’s early content drought. This success left Saber with a handsome profit, which helped Karch indulge in a lavish purchase—a $23 million Gulf Stream 280 jet in 2022.
