Take Two Interactive (Rockstar, 2K, Private Division) canceling games, ending projects and laying off 5% of its workforce

[MARL_Mk1]

zzZ....oO ()

Any day now...
 

Edited May 13 by MARL_Mk1

[Lisias]

"Microsoft says it needs games like Hi-Fi Rush the day after killing its studio"
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/8/24152137/xbox-hi-fi-rush-tango-gameworks-matt-booty

Quote: “We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards,”

They don't need Developers, they need games. In the exact same way MS didn't needed Mobile Developers when they bought Nokia, they needed the hardware to run their own O.S. on it.

Now we can better understand what's happening on the Industry (including TTI). There's a brace for impact, the big dogs are buying everything they lay their eyes on - and companies not willing to get bought are bracing for (financial) impact: hostile takeovers happens when the current stockholders don't see value enough on the stocks and are prone to sell them to whoever pays the better price.

It's the reason a lot of people still think that Stephen Elop was pushed into the Nokia's Board and became CEO by God knows what means - to make things happens in a way that would make current stockholders be willing to sell their stocks - what Microsoft gladly obliged.

There's a chance this is happening right now. There's a chance that this is happening even on this Community right now.

I strongly suggest people to do backgrounds checks on every people "working" here (being paid or not). There's a chance a potential hostile buyer had already foot a stronghold around here.

Edited May 14 by Lisias
Tyops are cosnpiring agaisnt me!!!

[AtomicTech]

Y'know, I think I've had enough of all of this T2 and KSP 2 nonsense. 

I hope Felipe manages to find a way to get the KSP IP back without all of this complex crap from these large companies. I'm finding that he's the only person that we could trust to make/oversee a building/flight sim game. I am very excited for the potential new space game that he might do after Kithack

[Mickel]

19 hours ago, Minmus Taster said:

Found this on the discord:

 

Gene Kerman?!  Oh no... that's so sad.

[Pthigrivi]

8 hours ago, Lisias said:

"Microsoft says it needs games like Hi-Fi Rush the day after killing its studio"
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/8/24152137/xbox-hi-fi-rush-tango-gameworks-matt-booty

Quote: “We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards,”

They don't need Developers, they need games. In the exact same way MS didn't needed Mobile Developers when they bought Nokia, they needed the hardware to run their own O.S. on it.

Now we can better understand what's happening on the Industry (including TTI). There's a brace for impact, the big dogs are buying everything they lay their eyes on - and companies not willing to get bought are bracing for (financial) impact: hostile takeovers happens when the current stockholders don't see value enough on the stocks and are prone to sell them to whoever pays the better price.

It's the reason a lot of people still thinks that Stephen Elop was pushed into the Nokia's Board and became CEO by God knows what means - to make things happens in a way that would make current stockholders be willing to sell their stocks - what Microsoft gladly obliged.

There's a chance this is happening right now. There's a chance that this is happening even on this Community right now.

I strongly suggest people to do backgrounds checks on every people "working" here (being paid or not). There's a chance a potential hostile buyer had already foot a stronghold around here.

Meecrob hostile takeover confirmed. 

[Lisias]

5 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

Meecrob hostile takeover confirmed. 

Meecrob is not the only big dog in town, sonny...

Big dogs not rarely clashes for the bone.

Edited May 14 by Lisias
Hit "Save" too soon

[Bej Kerman]

15 hours ago, AtomicTech said:

Y'know, I think I've had enough of all of this T2 and KSP 2 nonsense. 

I hope Felipe manages to find a way to get the KSP IP back without all of this complex crap from these large companies. I'm finding that he's the only person that we could trust to make/oversee a building/flight sim game. I am very excited for the potential new space game that he might do after Kithack

And he can be trusted, how? KSP 1 was omnishambles with technical debt and a bunch of questionable design choices like impulse maneuver nodes that ignore burn time, no dV readouts or alarms (until he left KSP alone, of course), massive gaps in the parts list and no good way to sort said list, etc. and all I've seen indicates that if he did a sequel it would be far more about menial colony management than using them to build, launch and fly rockets. Kitbash is alright but it's obviously not as ambitious as a game about bootstrapping an interstellar space program.

[GluttonyReaper]

9 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

And he can be trusted, how? KSP 1 was omnishambles with technical debt and a bunch of questionable design choices like impulse maneuver nodes that ignore burn time, no dV readouts or alarms (until he left KSP alone, of course), massive gaps in the parts list and no good way to sort said list, etc. and all I've seen indicates that if he did a sequel it would be far more about menial colony management than using them to build, launch and fly rockets. Kitbash is alright but it's obviously not as ambitious as a game about bootstrapping an interstellar space program.

I think the bigger point is that I doubt he would want to work on KSP again, let alone KSP2. In hindsight it's pretty obvious that KSP1 very much got away from his initial "slap rockets together and see how far you can get" idea once it started to gain momentum, and it definitely felt like it was growing faster than they could plan features out by the end. And he's mentioned already that he would be more interested in a prequel to KSP than a sequel, which again makes sense when you consider that that would be much closer to what he was thinking of in those initial KSP versions. I'm not saying he wouldn't be capable of creating a KSP2, but I'm sure he's perfectly happy working on Kitbash instead.

[AtomicTech]

2 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

And he can be trusted, how? KSP 1 was omnishambles with technical debt and a bunch of questionable design choices like impulse maneuver nodes that ignore burn time, no dV readouts or alarms (until he left KSP alone, of course), massive gaps in the parts list and no good way to sort said list, etc. and all I've seen indicates that if he did a sequel it would be far more about menial colony management than using them to build, launch and fly rockets. Kitbash is alright but it's obviously not as ambitious as a game about bootstrapping an interstellar space program.

Did you even watch the video interview with Matt Lowne?

[cocoscacao]

Another interesting video

[Fizzlebop Smith]

1 hour ago, cocoscacao said:

Another interesting video

I enjoy these videos. Searching periodically for "Kerbal News" and variations of such.. produces little of worth.

Many of these videos contain the KSP analysis somewhere in a greater body and makes it a little harder to unKerbal it. Thanks.

The degree of silence is unusual. Granted there aren't any situations I can remember where so much uncertainty was met with prolonged silence. 

There is a excrements load potential cash associated with the brand. Often various peripheral product launches will accompany some flagship icon of the IP. 

Was truly hoping that flagship would be KSP2... If it is not I wonder what that flagship will be. The more I think on it.. the more I feel certain they will try to salvage the developement costs thus far. 

Unless there is another Flagshop Kerbal product on the Horizon.. KSP2 is the only way they currently have to really leverage the IP.

However, Microsoft is proof that Valuable and *potentially* lucrative IP get shelved all the time. Movie industry was infamous for buying screen plays an shelving them so the competition wouldn't have a shot with the material.

Perhaps it's one of those situations. "Hey, we tried. At least the other guys don't have it."

Alternatively, it could be the guys cutting the checks have decided that 7 concurrent teams (or whatever) is not needed.

I don't know.. I woke up strangley optimistic.

 

Edited May 14 by Fizzlebop Smith

[cocoscacao]

1 hour ago, Fizzlebop Smith said:

The degree of silence is unusual. Granted there aren't any situations I can remember where so much uncertainty was met with prolonged silence. 

I expect Friday, or, more likely, sometime next week, we'll get an update. Both of my disappointment and hope have deflated significantly. I'm just observing occasionally to see which checkbox I'll click on in the end.

Edited May 14 by cocoscacao

[Lisias]

8 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

And he can be trusted, how? KSP 1 was omnishambles with technical debt and a bunch of questionable design choices like impulse maneuver nodes that ignore burn time, no dV readouts or alarms (until he left KSP alone, of course), massive gaps in the parts list and no good way to sort said list, etc. and all I've seen indicates that if he did a sequel it would be far more about menial colony management than using them to build, launch and fly rockets.

You can blame @HarvesteR up to KSP 1.1.2 , when he left. KSP 1.2.2 have the oldest nasty bug still in existence, by the way.

You are talking about the very first big job from a kid that had just left the College. Make no mistake, one of the most influential video-games from all times, a Cultural Phenomena, is the first work of a kid on his very first job.

He had learnt a lot since them.

Yes, you can trust him. Not because he will not make mistakes, but because he will learn from them - while doing new ones on his way, as every single competent professional in this World.

That said, he is going to need some help from the Original Team too - KSP wasn't only @HarvesteR child, he had support from a lot of people.

 

8 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

Kitbash is alright but it's obviously not as ambitious as a game about bootstrapping an interstellar space program.

You know, he signed a pretty nasty Non Compete Agreement when he left Squad. He wasn't allowed to do absolutely anything that could be seen as KSP competition without risking having his cheeks ripped apart on a law suit.

But, you know, these problems may have an ending in the near future.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes

Edited May 14 by Lisias
ERRATUM: HarvesteR worked on KSP until 1.1.2 . The rest of the team left 8 months later. KSP 1.2.0 was released under the new Dev Team (basically, built from scratch)

[cocoscacao]

4 minutes ago, Lisias said:

Make no mistake, one of the most influential video-games from all times, a Cultural Phenomena, is the first work of a kid on his very first job.

Which is a pretty impressive feat, and a excrementsty situation to be in. Now all of his work will be compared to it. 

[Fizzlebop Smith]

55 minutes ago, Lisias said:

You know these problems may have an ending in the near future.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes

This is one of the most important things I've seen in a while to suggest a resurgence in truly greats games.

A lot of small developer hemmed up in some repurposed bovine waste from the big boys to protect the bottom line...being SOP really destroys the intended competition of a free market.

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/hooded-horse-co-founder-says-publishers-should-ditch-horrible-recoup-clauses-to-help-devs

This was an interesting read and I see it impact small business in manufacturing a lot as well.. the ones funding it say they assume *all* the risk.. but have stacked the deck so as to mitigate most of that risk onto others.

Remember.. golden rule of Captialism. "DO not risk your own money."

Edited May 14 by Fizzlebop Smith

[Lisias]

2 hours ago, cocoscacao said:

Which is a pretty impressive feat, and a excrementsty situation to be in. Now all of his work will be compared to it. 

There's an old adage where I live, Brazil:

Spoiler

Uma vez no inferno, abrace o Capeta - por trás. (Once in hell, hug the Devil - from behind.)

This tongue-in-cheek adage means, essentially, that you should embrace your problems and solve them, instead of fighting them.

You know, I would love having some of these problems myself!

[cocoscacao]

1 hour ago, Lisias said:

There's an old adage where I live, Brazil

Totally unrelated to the entire forum... Brazilian Portuguese... man, I hope I learn to speak it someday.

[Devblaze]

Totally unrelated but everyday we don't hear anything from them is just infuriating me even more.

I like how they pitched the idea of us being well informed throughout the development and they still don't tell us excrements.

Edited May 14 by Devblaze

[cocoscacao]

35 minutes ago, Devblaze said:

Totally unrelated but everyday we don't hear anything from them is just infuriating me even more

Even if we do hear from them, let's say news are optimistic. They are working hard on future updates. Does it matter at this point? For me, it doesn't anymore. The game may continue, the game may die.

[MechBFP]

17 minutes ago, cocoscacao said:

Even if we do hear from them, let's say news are optimistic. They are working hard on future updates. Does it matter at this point? For me, it doesn't anymore. The game may continue, the game may die.

True, although I would appreciate it if they could actually treat their customer base as actual customers. One can dream.

[Bej Kerman]

4 hours ago, Lisias said:

You are talking about the very first big job from a kid that had just left the College. Make no mistake, one of the most influential video-games from all times, a Cultural Phenomena, is the first work of a kid on his very first job.

KSP is one of the most influential video games of all time? It's a cultural phenomenon? No it isn't. It's niche and mostly confined to us nerds. Call me when it's brought up in conversations as casually as Half Life, Minecraft, Sonic, Mario, and Pong. He did an okay-ish job and got recognition in nerdy circles but that's not the same as being fundamentally rooted in culture.

4 hours ago, Lisias said:

Yes, you can trust him. Not because he will not make mistakes, but because he will learn from them - while doing new ones on his way, as every single competent professional in this World.

I can trust him for a relatively small project like Kitbash, but if he tried to do something like KSP 2 I bet he'd announce "No dV indicator!" as some kind of amazing revolutionary feature.

4 hours ago, Lisias said:

That said, he is going to need some help from the Original Team too - KSP wasn't only @HarvesteR child, he had support from a lot of people.

So is that the other people who held off on adding dV readouts, fixing said nasty bug, managing the parts list in a competent manner, et cetera?

Again, even Intercept identified these problems with HarvesteR's game despite their own issues and I don't feel like I have to cross my fingers for the Rocketwerkz team to avoid the wealth of problems KSP 1 had as they work on their competitor.

[Lisias]

1 hour ago, Bej Kerman said:

KSP is one of the most influential video games of all time? It's a cultural phenomenon? No it isn't. It's niche and mostly confined to us nerds.

Besides Snoopy, it's the only IP that I know that was sent to space.

https://airandspace.si.edu/air-and-space-quarterly/winter-2024/snoopy-in-space

In fact, the franchise is now even on Netflix episodes:

If this is what you call a niche, it's a HELL of a popular one!

  

1 hour ago, Bej Kerman said:

So is that the other people who held off on adding dV readouts, fixing said nasty bug, managing the parts list in a competent manner, et cetera?

Unfortunately, your argument is going into an Ad Hominem route. By insisting on pinpoint his errors, you appears to be striving on diminishing his successes.

Besides, and this is something to be kept in mind: the same team that declared KSP¹'s code a holy mess was the same one that, well, was working on the holy mess for almost a decade.

So they failed to fix the mess at best, or created it at worst.

So, exactly, why we should blindly please them over @HarvesteR and the original Team?

Why is so important to ignore that, coding a mess or not, KSP¹ sold estimated 5 Millions copies - a really impressive score for the very fist job of a kid that just left the College?

Edited May 15 by Lisias
brute force post merge

[Bej Kerman]

6 minutes ago, Lisias said:

Besides Snoopy, it's the only IP that I know that was sent to space.

https://airandspace.si.edu/air-and-space-quarterly/winter-2024/snoopy-in-space

In fact, the franchise is now even on Netflix episodes:

If this is what you call a niche, it's a HELL of a popular one!

The two examples you showed me: a test payload which can be switched out for anything and was likely suggested by an employee who is in on the niche, and a brief reference in a show. Not convinced. In especially the former example, it's like saying Microsoft Flight Simulator and Vatsim aren't niche because a lot of real pilots are into it, as if that'd make it any easier to explain to a friend with different interests to you. It's not like Snoopy where the reference isn't lost on people outside the niche, people actually know what Snoopy is.

[PDCWolf]

57 minutes ago, Lisias said:

-snip-

That stuff made the news too! Not just in gaming but mainstream media too.

https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-oft2-kerbal-jeb-zerog-indicator

https://www.pcgamer.com/they-flew-a-freaking-kerbal-to-the-international-space-station/

https://www.gamereactor.eu/a-kerbonaut-has-made-it-to-the-international-space-station-in-real-life-1086663/

https://www.engadget.com/boeing-starliner-kerbal-space-program-jeb-212326380.html

That's not to mention that they were approached to make an official education version, the game got taken to classrooms, expositions, the news, science talks and so much more.

It's a shame the sequel fell into hands that somehow were more clueless and amateur than what for the most part was either a single guy from Brazil or a ragtag group of indie developers. But hey, don't get too caught up, some people are just too salty to see it.

[Bej Kerman]

2 minutes ago, PDCWolf said:

It's a shame the sequel fell into hands that somehow were more clueless and amateur than what for the most part was either a single guy from Brazil or a ragtag group of indie developers.

Rose tinted glasses.