Savage: The Battle for Newerth was originally released by S2 Games in September 2003 and eventually became freeware 3 years later in September 2006, when the game has been officially abandoned and made open source. The last official patch (2.0e) came out in January 2004. Since then Savage: The Battle for Newerth has been continuously improved by the Savage community: from 2004 to 2005 by the EX2 team, from 2005 to 2007 by the SEP/SFE team and since 2008 by the XR team.

Although the game has been criticized for being released in an unpolished state, lacking basic features and any kind of tutorials, Savage: The Battle for Newerth with its innovative RTS/FPS gameplay was far ahead of its time, winning awards such as the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence and the Audience Award at the Independent Games Festival 2004 or the Editor's Choice Award "8.7 - Great" by IGN.com.












Why is there no official Website for Savage: The Battle for Newerth by S2 Games? S2 Games shut their official game servers down in 2004 and the stats server in 2007. In 2014 the Savage Master Server was frozen/shut down as well (so new game servers wouldn't show up) and they completely removed all information about Savage on their website. In 2018 S2 Games was quietly closed. Everything that's shut down (and much more) is taken over/provided by the Savage Community! Savagexr.com is the new official home of Savage, where you will find the most in-depth information about the game. Where can I download Savage: The Battle for Newerth? Savage: The Battle for Newerth with the latest SFE (Savage Full Enhancement) patch is available here:
Client (Windows, Linux) l Client (Mac) l Server (Windows, Linux) Does Savage: The Battle for Newerth still work? The server version linked above does still work, the client does not, unless you're using a very old PC with outdated graphic card drivers. In 2010 an OpenGL update caused a bug making Savage unable to run for everyone. This critical crash bug is fixed in Savage XR. Are there still populated servers for Savage: The Battle for Newerth? Yes, Savage is still alive and rocking, but the entire community is using Savage XR. You won't be able to play Savage: The Battle for Newerth online using the old 2.0e, SEP or SFE client, unless you're hosting your own server. Is Savage: The Battle for Newerth compatible with Savage XR? No, but Savage XR is downwards compatible with Savage: The Battle for Newerth. The gameplay in Savage XR remained mostly unchanged, so it makes little sense using an outdated version of Savage anyway.