KSP 2 Marketing Push by End of Year

[PlutoISaPlanet]

If ksp 2 comes out around thus time 2022, than the marketing push should realy ramp up at the end of this year/early 2022. What should we expect during the ramp up, what do you guys want to see?

Of course, I will be happy with whatever we see, but I am just wondering what you guys think.

[Hellenic]

I would be very interested in seeing a gameplay demo. Something along the lines of a quick moon mission that wouldn't spoil much but would still allow us to get a grasp on how KSP2 is an improvement over the original.

[Starhelperdude]

14 minutes ago, Hellenic said:

I would be very interested in seeing a gameplay demo. Something along the lines of a quick moon mission that wouldn't spoil much but would still allow us to get a grasp on how KSP2 is an improvement over the original.

ksp2 doesn't change that much regarding basic missions and stuff

[mcwaffles2003]

10 minutes ago, Hellenic said:

I would be very interested in seeing a gameplay demo. Something along the lines of a quick moon mission that wouldn't spoil much but would still allow us to get a grasp on how KSP2 is an improvement over the original.

This is something I've been waiting to see. The best demo I could think of to demonstrate all the improvements to KSP 2's early game would go like:

1. Start in a prop plane circling over the KSC  with a camera in front of the plane looking in at the kerbal inside then slow pan over with some narration about what's in view (introduce the game, "this is the KSC", etc..) 
2. Fade out and fade into the building selection view and introduce the buildings ending with the VAB
3. Click on the VAB and introduce its UI while building the KerbalX craft and demonstrating the sub-assembly features
4. Set the craft to launch and proceed similar to the gamescom gameplay demo (maybe show segments of the first tutorial here)
5. During the flight narrate whats going on while explaining the goals KSP 2 has set out to achieve and talk about the improvements made thus far. During this staging boosters, achieving orbit, setting up a maneuver, timewarping to the maneuver, and finishing the trans munar injection should be completed.
6. Upon arriving to the Mun talk about more texture improvements and establish this is only the first step in what a player can expect.
7. Land on the moon with a kerbal climbing out of the craft to plant a flag.
8. Fade out and talk about what mechanics will be in the latter parts of the game and go over some of the future steps players will make in their journey discovering the universe
9. Fade in to a bunch of quick shots similar in fashion to the Kerbal Space Program 2 - Show and Tell video

 

[PlutoISaPlanet]

1 hour ago, Hellenic said:

I would be very interested in seeing a gameplay demo. Something along the lines of a quick moon mission that wouldn't spoil much but would still allow us to get a grasp on how KSP2 is an improvement over the original.

I would love to see this!

1 hour ago, Starhelperdude said:

ksp2 doesn't change that much regarding basic missions and stuff

I know, but we get to se ethe game in action with no spoilers. I would actually love to see a public demo we could play with a mun craft.

[Admiral Fluffy]

1 hour ago, Hellenic said:

I would be very interested in seeing a gameplay demo. Something along the lines of a quick moon mission that wouldn't spoil much but would still allow us to get a grasp on how KSP2 is an improvement over the original.

I think we could get a small gameplay demo like I said below \/

9 minutes ago, PlutoISaPlanet said:

I know, but we get to se ethe game in action with no spoilers. I would actually love to see a public demo we could play with a mun craft.

Something like the original KSP demo, where you could go to the Mun or Minimis?

[herbal space program]

I actually want them to surprise me!   I don't want it to feel like I've already played the game when it finally comes out. These little Dev teasers are plenty for me, almost too much even.

 

...and greetings fellow space chimpanzee! Has anyone talked to you about joining the union yet?

Edited June 17, 2021 by herbal space program

[Dr. Kerbal]

54 minutes ago, Admiral Fluffy said:

Something like the original KSP demo, where you could go to the Mun or Minimis?

I think a KSP2 demo should be this

• HAve at least the VAB
• HAve at least the Mun to explore
• Have limited parts but over 10
• And I dont have anything else to say 

[Dr. Kerbal]

What do suggest isn't entire crazy talk. I know Take-Two Interactive own the rights to Kerbal Space Program and I am sure they would like to regain there money just like Microsoft and Minecraft. Now though. If the marketing department of Intercept Games or Private Division were to push the release date earlier why would they?  They probably would push the release date earlier  to make sure they dont loose players or expected buyers of the game.  But how far. I'm not sure. The KSP Community at its current state is expecting KSP2 to release in 2022. Something in spring. However, if the pushed the release date too early  they may risk quality. Never things are good if they are rushed. We see this example with EA and their subsidiaries. So if KSP2 was to have an earlier release date, in my predications a reasonable on would be late 2021 and early 2022. But that depends on the state of the current global state, company wants and needs, and it also depends on many other conditions. 

[TLTay]

Speaking of marketing push, today (June 17th) there was an article on KSP and Nertea mods on wired: https://www.wired.com/story/test-out-next-gen-space-tech-kerbal-space-program/

Not sure if it's s marketing thing, but hadn't seen it mentioned.

[Kerbart]

17 minutes ago, TLTay said:

Speaking of marketing push, today (June 17th) there was an article on KSP and Nertea mods on wired: https://www.wired.com/story/test-out-next-gen-space-tech-kerbal-space-program/

Not sure if it's s marketing thing, but hadn't seen it mentioned.

“Instead of Powerpoint slides and pages of equations, just make the ship and see how it works,” he says. “If it works in Kerbal, then it has a good chance of working in real life.”

Somehow I expect a lot more real life launches to go kaboom in the near future.

[Pthigrivi]

17 hours ago, Starhelperdude said:

ksp2 doesn't change that much regarding basic missions and stuff

The fundamentals look similar but I get the sense career/science mode is getting a pretty significant overhaul. Im definitely excited to see what that will start to look like. 

[Dientus]

1 hour ago, Pthigrivi said:

The fundamentals look similar but I get the sense career/science mode is getting a pretty significant overhaul. Im definitely excited to see what that will start to look like. 

Yes, I for one am anxious to see adventure mode and tech progression myself. They have been rather vague on details but have made it clear it won't be a copy of KSP.

 

My guess is marketing will likely ramp up when game development is well into beta. Of course this takes into consideration that they are not releasing beta to the general public. I can't remember the exact marketing example but I believe 3 months before release is optimum in this business in part because gamers attention spans are so short in general and their patience is so short. So my opinion is the end of '21 seems to be a good guess when we will start seeing Mass advertising.

Edited June 18, 2021 by Dientus
word change

[Kerbart]

11 hours ago, Dientus said:

My guess is marketing will likely ramp up when game development is well into beta. Of course this takes into consideration that they are not releasing beta to the general public. I can't remember the exact marketing example but I believe 3 months before release is optimum in this business in part because gamers attention spans are so short in general and their patience is so short. So my opinion is the end of '21 seems to be a good guess when we will start seeing Mass advertising.

But this is not a title like GTA or Halo. What's more, T2 has experience with how a game like this sells—slow and steady, for many years, with good follow-up sales on DLC. There won't be a public beta; it's problematic and doesn't improve the software. But I do expect sneak previews by famous youtubers and twitchers. As for generating hype, I suspect that a lot will go through getting articles published in magazines like Wired and Slate, banking on impulse purchases (maybe even "for the kids") by an audience that normally wouldn't buy a game. Those efforts go to waste when those articles are read before publication, so it's likely that a media campaign will be launched at the introduction of the game and not before.

[mcwaffles2003]

3 hours ago, Kerbart said:

banking on impulse purchases (maybe even "for the kids") by an audience that normally wouldn't buy a game.

I think this would be more likely if they were an indie dev making a game selling at an indie price. KSP 2 is selling for $60 though.

[K^2]

On 6/17/2021 at 1:16 PM, PlutoISaPlanet said:

If ksp 2 comes out around thus time 2022, than the marketing push should realy ramp up at the end of this year/early 2022. What should we expect during the ramp up, what do you guys want to see?

It's a bit hand-wavey, but generally speaking, when you generate marketing, you want something actionable for target demographic to do. Like, with very early stuff, it might be something as trivial as, "Sign up for our mailing lists," but eventually, the goal is to get people to buy the game. Given how long the game's been known about and what marketing has already been done, my guess is that next big push is for pre-orders. It doesn't make a lot of sense to build up a hype for anything else at this stage. Also, given how things have gone so far, I don't think T2/Intercept will want to announce release date early, and I don't think they'll start taking pre-orders until at least the month of release is made public.

I don't really expect the game to come out before early fall '22. In which case, they might even wait for next year's E3 to announce release date and open up pre-orders. They might start a little earlier, especially, if I'm pessimistic about the date, but I still wouldn't think they'd start in earnest until well into next year.

That's not to say that they can't take some opportunities to generate additional marketing earlier. Especially if there are any events or conferences that will be well timed for it. Just nothing like an organized push.

[Bej Kerman]

It does worry me that we're this close to launch and we've only seen snippets of untouched gameplay.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Bej Kerman said:

It does worry me that we're this close to launch and we've only seen snippets of untouched gameplay.

"this close" is realistically a year from now, and the original plan was for a reveal (just the trailer, no gameplay) 6 months before launch, I see no problems there.

We got used with the hype machine in the last few years but non seeing gameplay since the last few months before release used to be a pretty normal thing, and it seems to be coming back as an idea given that in the last few conventions "no gameplay shown" was the main concern of most.

[mcwaffles2003]

1 hour ago, Master39 said:

"this close" is realistically a year from now, and the original plan was for a reveal (just the trailer, no gameplay) 6 months before launch, I see no problems there.

They did show gameplay though, just under a week after announcement:

 

[Bej Kerman]

1 hour ago, mcwaffles2003 said:

They did show gameplay though, just under a week after announcement:

I want to see 10 minutes of unedited gameplay, none of this montage stuff that probably cherrypicked the least broken stuff in this game. I'm sorry, but I cannot understand blind hype.

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

I'm sorry, but I cannot understand blind hype

The hype is not blind, if you followed even a bit of KSP development over the last decade.

They're spot on on a lot of their design decisions and for a sequel of a niche, complex game made by an external studio from a big publisher that is a rare thing.

Gameplay right now would mean nothing except that the whole team wasted a month or two of organized work to make a single vertical slice of the game good enough for the video (like it happened with the 40 minutes of gameplay of cyberpunk).

If anything half a ton of reveals later the podcast interview remains one of the best source of information and even a hour of unedited gameplay wouldn't change that.

Edited June 21, 2021 by Master39

[Dientus]

1 hour ago, Master39 said:

The hype is not blind, if you followed even a bit of KSP development over the last decade.

For me I don't think about it quite so much as "blind hype" as it is that I just want to see what the developers are aiming for gameplay wise. To elaborate, will there be any strategy, what level of management will there be, will there be what I consider tedious grind in it, will there be an end game (by this I mean comparable to No Man's sky) or will it stay open-ended as KSP is, and will the developers vision of the game match my own and make me wish to buy it?

 

There are games that I have been duped by through (my view) misleading glimpses into what their game is. And I have purchased games based upon the previous original where it turns out the sequel was not near as good gameplay wise.

 

You're right. Cyberpunk is a good example where time was wasted creating a type of "gameplay peek" that could have been better spent on the game itself. That is definitely something I would like to not happen with KSP2. But because they are games on different levels I suspect that Intercept Games would not attempt such a farce, though I could be wrong.

 

To summarize, I would still like to see more gameplay from the devs. But if it doesn't happen it's not like I am totally signing off on KSP 2 all together either. I would rather they spend the time on the game and see game play a month before release then seeing some hacked together bologna now.

[Bej Kerman]

1 hour ago, Master39 said:

2 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

I'm sorry, but I cannot understand blind hype

The hype is not blind, if you followed even a bit of KSP development over the last decade.

They're spot on on a lot of their design decisions and for a sequel of a niche, complex game made by an external studio from a big publisher that is a rare thing.

Gameplay right now would mean nothing except that the whole team wasted a month or two of organized work to make a single vertical slice of the game good enough for the video (like it happened with the 40 minutes of gameplay of cyberpunk).

If anything half a ton of reveals later the podcast interview remains one of the best source of information and even a hour of unedited gameplay wouldn't change that.

There'd be a lot less disappointment if we didn't hype but looked at what we have with logic and realistic expectations. Chances are KSP 2 will be successful, but if it isn't and everyone riots, just remember I said that.

[PlutoISaPlanet]

13 minutes ago, Dientus said:

For me I don't think about it quite so much as "blind hype" as it is that I just want to see what the developers are aiming for gameplay wise. To elaborate, will there be any strategy, what level of management will there be, will there be what I consider tedious grind in it, will there be an end game (by this I mean comparable to No Man's sky) or will it stay open-ended as KSP is, and will the developers vision of the game match my own and make me wish to buy it?

 

There are games that I have been duped by through (my view) misleading glimpses into what their game is. And I have purchased games based upon the previous original where it turns out the sequel was not near as good gameplay wise.

 

You're right. Cyberpunk is a good example where time was wasted creating a type of "gameplay peek" that could have been better spent on the game itself. That is definitely something I would like to not happen with KSP2. But because they are games on different levels I suspect that Intercept Games would not attempt such a farce, though I could be wrong.

 

To summarize, I would still like to see more gameplay from the devs. But if it doesn't happen it's not like I am totally signing off on KSP 2 all together either. I would rather they spend the time on the game and see game play a month before release then seeing some hacked together bologna now.

Couldn't agree more! I was going to say something along these lines, but you beat me to it!

[Dr. Kerbal]

I would like there to be a show and tell of un edited gameplay. No ceinmatic or montage. With UI and everything. From biulding to flying from saving to loading from crashing from everything you can do in KSP2 with flying and biulding