KSP Acquired by Take-Two Interactive

[Ten Key]

24 minutes ago, shdwlrd said:

Reading through the posts, every time I see TT, I have to say Take-Two because I'm thinking Travelers Tales.

My brain keeps turning it into "table top". 

[0111narwhalz]

29 minutes ago, shdwlrd said:

Reading through the posts, every time I see TT, I have to say Take-Two because I'm thinking Travelers Tales.

5 minutes ago, Ten Key said:

My brain keeps turning it into "table top". 

I've "Transport Tycoon" myself. Curse these ambiguous acronyms!

[LordFerret]

1 hour ago, StupidAndy said:

I've been wondering how much they bought KSP for...

or are they probably not going to release that info?

 

1 hour ago, Lupi said:

Terms of the deal are confidential.

Probably Rockstar. TTI also owns the people who produce XCOM, and those people LOVE mods, they even i think helped with production of the Long War mod if i remember that story right.

TTWO is an American company (multinational publisher), traded publicly on the NASDAQ. Squad is a Mexican entity. Any American company which buys a foreign interest must divulge the amount, among other things. This will be made known in the near future - it's the law.

[Ty Tan Tu]

I guess I am going off topic now, but I would love to see land base parts like the British have with their Halley VI Research Station in Antarctica - and I would be willing to pay a bit for design like this.

 

 

 

 

 

[Moach]

don't you dare suggest that! it goes against everything the modding community stands for and the most fundamental spirit of the game

 

sale of ingame assets is a VERY controversial subject - and there is a very valid reason for us all to worry about the possibility of them infusing the game with C.A.N.C.E.R. (Commercially Abusive Novelty Coin Exchange Rookings)

remember, Freemium isn't free - and it will destroy gaming as a thing worth pursuing if allowed to proliferate - we should all realize this and push for legislation rendering the sale of in-game currencies ILLEGAL

this because that concept breaks the very foundations of capitalism, for every freemium game is in itself a localized total monopoly, in which the sole profiting party controls both supply AND demand, with zero possible competition - and mind that this is done knowingly, also using addiction-based methods as well to squeeze off >90% of revenues from an afflicted <10% of users, whom have been lured in and become victims of a yet-unrecognized form of exploitation

 

 

so do NOT suggest, even jokingly, about being willing to "pay for this and that" because that is how it starts -- these are not game designers making these calls, they are hungry, greedy business people who "monetize" things until they become ghastly abominations, and get derelicted in favour of the next big fad

also, for every company that succeeds in this grizzly affair - a hundred small, honest ones are harmed, or fail altogether as a result that investors are very susceptible to survivorship bias in their decisions, so they all want to "do it that way" because they think players actually enjoy this... little knowing that in order to get a greedy-grab title up to popularity, there are millions of dollars put into advertising it 

 

as an indie game developer, I say NAY!

and make a proud stance that any game I shall have anything to do with must be C.A.N.C.E.R. FREE! - players unite for a C.A.N.C.E.R. FREE gaming industry! tell everyone - allow no greed to sully your favourite passtime

 

 

not saying they'll do that... but if they did, it would be a very, VERY bad day for everyone

 

 

 

 

Edited June 2, 2017 by Moach

[Sirad]

25 minutes ago, Moach said:

not saying they'll do that... but if they did, it would be a very, VERY bad day for everyone

unfortunately i can only like this post once. If possible this one have gotten 1000.

[Benjamin Kerman]

I completly agree with @Moach. You should not have ingame purchases. I can see DLC's for specific things, but definitely not little things here and there like "Visit Jool for an overpowered engine that you can get a free trial of for 2 days". These things cause exactly what Moach was talking about. 

[MiffedStarfish]

Exactly. Go that way we will have random chance part boxes, and eventually purchase-locked parts. Adding something like that would go completely against a quirky physics simulator.

I'm still not sure what I think of this, but they better not change the SQUAD logo on monoliths with the TT logo, or we will riot.

Edited June 2, 2017 by MiffedStarfish

[Superfluous J]

It may be wise to point out here that nobody but people in this thread who are not associated with Squad or Take Two have mentioned microtransactions, pay-to-win, or anything like that.  Any concern over it is concern over nothing.

[Dunbaratu]

One fear I have is that KSP is the sort of game that never could have been made by a traditional AAA title company and still remained true to the purpose of keeping proper physics (or a reasonable fascimile thereof).

KSP has some features that large game companies really really don't like:

- Correctness being more important than newbie-friendliness.  (It's GOOD to have a game where being unwilling to learn some math and engineering hinders you.)

- "It looks cool" should never trump "It's plausible".

- Keep it as platform-independant as possible, even to the point of supporting Linux despite its small market share.

It's not that I don't think KSP could have a future under Take Two (and a possible KSP 2.0 could happen that way).  It's that I fear it will look more like a normal AAA title in the sense that the above bullet points might be sacrificed pretty quickly by the bosses who give the orders.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Steven Mading

[KSK]

Has anyone got a good supply of rags please? Looks like we need to clean the bull products off the pitchforks. Would be terribly unhygienic otherwise.

[Sirad]

14 minutes ago, KSK said:

Has anyone got a good supply of rags please? Looks like we need to clean the bull products off the pitchforks. Would be terribly unhygienic otherwise.

Lite the Torch and Sterilize the Pitchfork with fire.

Ready!

[Lelitu]

well, time to start maintaining an up to date backup where steam can't get at it. 

[SingABrightSong]

Ah, Take 2? They may be known for Rockstar Games, but I know them for Firaxis. Shows what my niche is, I suppose, but if people are concerned about mod support or DRM, I say they have nothing to fear.

 

*ponders about a KSP/SMAC crossover*

 

 

[KSK]

3 minutes ago, SingABrightSong said:

Ah, Take 2? They may be known for Rockstar Games, but I know them for Firaxis. Shows what my niche is, I suppose, but if people are concerned about mod support or DRM, I say they have nothing to fear.

*ponders about a KSP/SMAC crossover*

Not sure about a cross-over but I've long held that KSP could learn some lessons from SMAC. Probably won't happen but a man can dream.

[Moach]

37 minutes ago, Lelitu said:

well, time to start maintaining an up to date backup where steam can't get at it. 

good advice to all -- we must preserve this state of KSP for a possible "community edition" for which there is non-negligible reason to worry may become necessary - big money has historically been almost always bad for games like this

to say there's no need to worry is some wishful thinking - I say take precautions, and THEN allow yourself not to worry

 

it's not that we don't trust them.... but uh, we don't necessarily do trust them

 

 

simply, it would not be the first time - and contrary to widespread managerial-level belief, gamers are NOT gullible idiots - and we remember EVERYTHING, grudges duly held where applicable....

if this were to turn out for the best (as we all eagerly hope, now that backups have been secured) - it's not unfair to say that many of us would be seeing this event as a first...

 

cause really, historically - big money = BIG trouble,  and blunders are expected in exponential proportion to budget size - with an alarming >90% correctness ratio 

 

so basically - we're holding our breaths for an EXCEPTION to an otherwise very unpalatable rule of averages

 

 

 

so there is our most eloquently put response to this announcement - we have backed up our games away from any devices which might alter it without our express consent, you know... just in case

sorry for the less-than-warm welcome, but unlike the "ppl upstairs" have a often shown a tendency to believe,  we take our game seriously

 

we wish for the best nonetheless.... backups safely stashed

 

Edited June 2, 2017 by Moach

[GhunkNZ]

I've played 1500+ hours of KSP and this is the first time I have ever posted in the forums.  Please for the love of god do not mess with mod support.

Feels like one of the sell out career strategies you avoid in game.  

I've certainly had my moneys worth from the game but would love to see it continue.

DO NOT MESS WITH THE MODDERS!  They are the only reason I can play the game, vanilla is a shell.

[John FX]

34 minutes ago, GhunkNZ said:

I've played 1500+ hours of KSP and this is the first time I have ever posted in the forums.  Please for the love of god do not mess with mod support.

Feels like one of the sell out career strategies you avoid in game.  

I've certainly had my moneys worth from the game but would love to see it continue.

DO NOT MESS WITH THE MODDERS!  They are the only reason I can play the game, vanilla is a shell.

You never know, they may make stock less of a shell and more of an actual game without reducing the ability to mod the game. Makes business sense if you want to attract more customers.

Really people, companies of a certain size do not care what is in a game or whether they agree with the philosophy or approach of the game. If it sells they like it, if it sells a lot they like it more.

KSP has a niche carved out by itself for itself, it does not make sense to then get a hammer and hammer it into a pre-existing market, you would get less sales. This does not make financial sense so they will not do it.

 

No, instead you carve out the niche KSP has made for itself, expand it, make it more user friendly. Yes this means readouts and less maths for the user and this IS a good thing, just not for the 1% of people who do not want the readouts because they like to work it out with a pen and paper. It means a transfer planning window and other things.

It does not mean less realistic physics because that is one of the USPs of KSP and you do not remove or change those, they are the core of why the game sells.

Big companies are not evil because they care about what is in games and want to make them all bad or to match a pre-existing view, no they are evil because they do NOT care what is in the game as long as it sells and makes money.

They know if they change KSP too much that money is gone so they will allow @SQUAD a relatively free reign, possibly with more secure funding, to make the game better and to expand the USP of KSP.

Entities (like TT) which have a singular goal are very predictable, they focus on that goal, that goal is profit. If they change the business model of KSP they risk that profit. If they assist the current model they increase the profit.

At least for KSP 1 the future is more secure and safe now. For later titles maybe not so much but THIS game is safe.

Edited June 2, 2017 by John FX
spelling

[Sharpy]

I wonder how much corporate meddling will break KSP.

Coming to KSP soon:

- Guns

- Massive multiplayer space battles

- Simple, intuitive physics (no more of that pesky orbital mechanics!)

- e-sports

- 150 basic and 30 premium ship models to choose from (custom-built ships would unbalance the combat gameplay.)

- rocket fuel purchasable through micropayments.

8 hours ago, 0111narwhalz said:

I've "Transport Tycoon" myself. Curse these ambiguous acronyms!

T2. There. The only conflict is with Terminator 2, but that's probably appropriate.

[garithmar]

I hope with the introduction of console systems the game doesn't suffer.  This game was made for pc's from the start and changing the pc version for a watered down console friendly version only hurts it tremendously.  I say this now because most big gaming companies love to port over the game into every imaginable electronic they can.  Never has this helped the game, only the cash it makes.

Edited June 2, 2017 by garithmar

[Guest]

3 hours ago, SingABrightSong said:

Ah, Take 2? They may be known for Rockstar Games, but I know them for Firaxis.

 

That's where I know them from, as well. And the fate of "Sid Meier's Pirates!" (2004) is why I don't have the warm fuzzies about all this.

[lodger]

5 hours ago, Steven Mading said:

- Keep it as platform-independant as possible, even to the point of supporting Linux despite its small market share.

I'm one of those Linux desktop users, since 1998. If KSP will no longer be released for Linux because some business dude thinks it's not worth doing so I'd be more than disappointed. KSP is by far the best, native Linux game on the market. Unfortunately, business dudes in the gaming industry don't give a snack about Linux. TT is no exception here (ever seen a Linux native GTA release? Me neither!) and if they decide to cut costs (which usually is the first thing that happens after such a deal) I'm pretty sure the Linux version will definately be the first to fall victim to this.

Edited June 2, 2017 by lodger

[Azimech]

44 minutes ago, Sharpy said:

I wonder how much corporate meddling will break KSP.

Coming to KSP soon:

- Guns

- Massive multiplayer space battles

- Simple, intuitive physics (no more of that pesky orbital mechanics!)

- e-sports

- 150 basic and 30 premium ship models to choose from (custom-built ships would unbalance the combat gameplay.)

- rocket fuel purchasable through micropayments.

T2. There. The only conflict is with Terminator 2, but that's probably appropriate.

My vision for expanding marketshare while not hurting the existing community.

Multiplayer is a must. Players can then choose if they want to shoot things/each other or not. Don't like multiplayer, guns & battles? Don't use them.

And the ability to have (car) races would be a very interesting ... if I were Squad I would've made it a top priority years ago. With the same freedom: don't wanna race? Then don't do it.

 

 

 

 

48 minutes ago, garithmar said:

I hope with the introduction of console systems the game doesn't suffer.  This game was made for pc's from the start and changing the pc version for a watered down console friendly version only hurts it tremendously.  I say this now because most big gaming companies love to port over the game into every imaginable electronic they can.  Never has this helped the game, only the cash it makes.

I was against the console versions from the start, I predicted the exact current scenario. Best thing Squad can do is just update them to 1.3 and stop further development.

[Spartwo]

1 hour ago, Sharpy said:

- Massive multiplayer space battles

Firstly the threat of war was a huge driving factor behind early space exploration. It heavily influenced the design of the space shuttle. If you don't like it don't join in but don't act like space programs are wholly this pure godly for the good of all humanity types.

 

Secondly, multiplayer is one of the biggest requests on this forum if not the biggest. 

[sarbian]

Can those who keep talking about micro transaction and such explains where those fears from ? Because I keep looking at T2 published game list and most of them don't have any of that. Some seems to forget that T2 publish a bit more than GTA: Civilization, XCOM, Borderland, Bioshock...

Those games (last I checked) don't run on micropayment and are not minor games.