Kerbal Space Program 2 - END OF THE LINE? Future Uncertain Among Layoffs

Confusion surrounds the future of KSP2 as studio Intercept Games appears to be closing down. Publishers Take-Two have issued a round of layoffs which appear to be affecting this studio, yet few details have been confirmed.

Any support is massively appreciated!

Music by Epidemic Sound

[Exoreya]

KSP 1 was an indi game with a lot of love put into the game. KSP 2 was just another "investement" on a corporate spead sheet somewhere. and it shows...

[fabiopauli]

Cant wait for the T2 ceo to get a 30mil bonus at the end of the year after GTA6 released

[LucaM]

The player numbers are bad because nothing is happening.
There is no communication, no updates, that means no players.

Everything was to be expected from the beginning about what happened with KSP2.

[GermanEnigma]

The overlords at head office must be saying, "It's a niche product."

[michaelharder]

So early access now means:
Give us money and maybe we'll try and make a game. It might be good or it might not even happen. Who knows and who cares as long as you give us money.

[Syntex]

Hate to say I’m not really shocked. With the way this game flopped and the slow development process bringing it to a state that could even match KSP1, it was very likely Take2 was gonna can it as a failed release.

[GreenAppelPie]

I’ve learned to not buy games until they’re in good shape. Case in point.

[captainyossarian]

Wow, if Matt is pissed, things are really really bad.

[ramboahoe]

Open source the game. The community will fix it over time.

[lordflashheart]

I wish I'd been wrong on this one. I would have liked a proper sequel to my beloved Kerbal.

[Casey]

"Are you still alive?" *cricket noises *
Well... that tells us all we need to know, right?

[Bambeakz]

So releasing an alpha as an early acces game also doesn’t help sales? I keep learning everyday 👍

[foltrap]

I'm really bitter about this one. I put well over 2, 000 hours into ksp 1, definitely top 3 favourite games.
I refunded ksp 2 within 20 minutes, it didn't have the love. It was broken and buggy sure, but it didn't have the love. Knew it was a corporate cash grab but maybe.. maaaaybe they'd make a go of it..
Ever since part of me has been kind of hoping it would fall over, just as a middle finger to those bastards for trying to ruin one of my favourite things.. but god I'll never be hyped for anything like I was after that first trailer..
Bring back squad!!

[Cohen.the.Worrier]

So a couple of enthusiasts form an Indy company and launch a successful product.
The professionals take over and run it into the ground, but they do so very professionally.
Am I the only one who sees a pattern here?

[Blackhawknz]

"Take-Two announced a cost reduction program to identify efficiencies across its business and to enhance the Company's profile... investing for growth... rationalizing its pipeline... eliminating several projects... streamlining its organizational structure... eliminate headcount"

The corpo speak is strong here. That they don't view the employees of these studios as people is peak capatalism. The executives have gotta get their bonuses though.

[NineSun]

Anatomie of a disaster:

1. A well established, mid-sized game studio with on of the largest publishers on this planet had the audacity to release an early access title
2. They intentially blown up the hype about the game beginning years before the early access release
3. The price was almost three times higher then the original game
4. They released a bug ridden mess, even for early access standards
5. Absolutely no communication with their fanbase

Well, who could've thought that this is going to tank hard?
I bought it, "played" it for ~2 hours and refunded it. This is just a disgrace and pure disrespect for every KSP fan out there.

Well, Take Two was involved, but somehow that fact escaped my better judgement, as I love KSP1 and simply ignored the massive red flags.

Now here we are.

And for the lay offs, well corpos doing what corpos are always doing, burning the dev and granting boni to the bosses. But if you worked on KSP2 as a dev and didn't hear the bell 6 months ago, not even god can help your lack of foresight ...

[Corias]

the situation is trash. A triple A Publisher abuses the early access system to make off with backers money and ruins a very good IP. Steam should D-list them so they can't make any more money off of this, that is the only positive outcome that is available at this point. Might send a message for people to stop abusing early access. I personally might have felt different if this was just a group of Independent guys and they just ran out of money, but no, Take 2 has the resources, but they rather cut their losses, and lose what little trust they had with another group of gamers, so it is what it is

[Theonixco]

If they don't outright cancel the game, this will be the SECOND time that this game has been reassigned to another studio. Its downright shameful the development cycle this game has been through, and worse the previous lead devs NOT listening and outright lying to the community that anticipated it.

I doubt we will ever see the game completely fleshed out, we'll probably get what we have now and no more.

[GermanEnigma]

In space, no one can hear you scream.

[deltacx]

Take two has over 11.5k employees, I don't know what they are doing with all of them but NOT ONE can bother giving a good answer. Also a good cost reduction strategy is not doubling your executive pay in 2023, seriously no single person can actually make use of that much pay.