We've Had Enough Of This...

Players of Kerbal Space Program 2 deserve better. The developers deserve better. Rollerdrome appears to have been a big success, and exactly the sort of game we want more of, yet it's studio's reward is closure.

Sources:

[RedlinePush]

What they did to Kerbal is heart wrenching. That game was the nexus of something that transcends a video game. It created a community, and it spread the understanding and love of the realities of space travel.

[delindsay]

Moral of the story (goes for any Industry) NEVER EVER EVER sell your Company to a gigantic for-profit Publicly held Corporation because bad things WILL ensue.

[CorvusABray]

Not only did Take Two shut down the original private dev team by cancelling the contract and poaching the company's dev's, they then turn around and shut the NEW dev team down too.

[TierHarribel]

Indie games have made up like 70% of what I play the last few years, if this leads to more developers going indie and joining smaller groups, I'll call that a win.

[matthewbreen]

Two years from now "Why can't we find people to make video games anymore?"

[quinntonhuffman]

Nothing a corporate executive gets involved in goes well. A truly fascinating system we have created where these c-suite losers can make so many awful decisions yet are richly rewarded. And everyone around them pays the price.

[exterminater]

When I heard that KSP2 devs sold out to be incorporated into a blanket studio, I knew this was going to be the outcome.
Thats all these blanket companies do. Buy up the rights to titles, get peoples money, close the indie studio but keep the title rights.

Now the studio we all know and love lost their studio, AND lost the rights to their own game franchise.
We will no longer have ANY KSP games in the future now.

[BritBox]

When the execs say "Yeah, updates are still coming" after firing all the developers it REALLY makes me wonder... do they not realise people need to make those? Are they actually that detached?

[kdog]

KSP felt like it was slow walking to the gallows as soon as I heard they'd been bought by Take Two. In this instance, I derive no satisfaction from being right.

[Skrallizar]

If a game doesn't make as much as GTAV Online, than it's not worth it - TakeTwo, apparently

[Mabswer]

Just goes to show that having an outside or "third party" publisher / owner is a bad thing. Go solo / indi for there is no need to publishers in current day

[sig]

The game that should never have been in early access will now never leave it. At this point, early access is something I'd only consider trusting an indie dev with. Any corporate studio or publisher should be denied the privilege.

[Hedgehobbit]

KSP 2 is a great example of the dangers of Early Access. If the game doesn't do well, it will never be completed. Then you are stuck. No one will buy KSP 3 and if you try and finish KSP 2 then you will have to do so with zero new sales. The franchise is toast.

[cosmicusstardust]

We are witnessing the implosion of the AAA industry, indie is the future now

[Henbot]

Tbh in older days ( probably still do it now ) of music you had producers and record companies that would purchase bands music and just never release them and just spin out an act that was in the style of the music bands they were sitting on. Way to eliminate competition but also maintain an advantage on a style of music

[fakecubed]

We can pretty much blame the same conglomerates that destroyed film and television. They figured games were the next big thing and wanted to have a monopoly on that too. The difference is, distribution is way easier in video games, and anyone can make a pretty fun game as a one man shop. There was so much more competition in gaming and no way was the usual scummy behavior of the major entertainment conglomerates was going to work out for them. Unfortunately, they still tried, because they're a bunch of boomers who don't know anything about the market.

[rogeriopenna]

Kerbal 1 story is quite crazy. Felipe Falanghe, a brazilian who loved to make rockets as a kid (and says he doesn´t know how he didn´t lost some fingers) was working on Squad in Mexico, an e-Marketing company who had never developed a game.

Felipe approached them with the idea of Kerbal and they bought the idea and assembled a team of people who had never created a game...

[magetsalive]

Huh, it's almost as if purchased studios serve as ablative armor for big publishers - suffer reputation damage? Just throw away a studio!

Gee, that sure seems like a really smart idea that absolutely will never ever backfire!

[goldfish]

I only play indies or critically aclaimed AAA from atleast 2 years back

Corperate is destroying everything allong with their own future profits they want so bad.

It's baffeling how little business insight C level exccess are

[TickleFight]

Nothing improves morale more than letting the workforce know the quality of their work has nothing to do with whether they get to keep their jobs (sarcasm).