Is Intercept Games being shut down?

[ColdJ]

Saw a video on youtube claiming that Intercept and KSP2 is being shut down. Can anyone confirm this?

 

 

Edited May 3 by ColdJ

[calabus2]

Did you try googling for any news about Intercept Games?

[ColdJ]

2 minutes ago, calabus2 said:

Did you try googling for any news about Intercept Games?

Yes.

There are many sites that have reports that this is happening, put up in the last 24 hours.

But where better to confirm than on this forum?

Being sure of truth, not conjecture, can be hard in todays internet.

[GGG-GoodGuyGreg]

ObsidianAnt usually knows what he’s saying. 

[stephensmat]

All the news sites and all the social media, and pretty much half the traffic on the Forums/Discord for the last day and a half has been based on the same three facts. We've gotten exactly one tweet from official KSP channels.

The uncertainty is driving everyone to assume the worst, and in the absence of anything to contradict it, it just sounds more and more likely.

That being said, we can't be sure of anything yet. If the Devs knew anything for certain, they'd tell us so, if only to kill gossip.

Sooner or later, we'll know everything they do.

[calabus2]

9 minutes ago, ColdJ said:

Yes.

There are many sites that have reports that this is happening, put up in the last 24 hours.

But where better to confirm than on this forum?

Being sure of truth, not conjecture, can be hard in todays internet.

https://esd.wa.gov/about-employees/WARN

Government listing TakeTwo layoff/closure for Seattle location. Take Two has only 1 studio in Seattle and that is Intercept Games

[Infinite Aerospace]

16 minutes ago, ColdJ said:

Saw a video on youtube claiming that Intercept and KSP2 is being shut down. Can anyone confirm this?

 

 

Look, this might actually not be the best place to look for your answers as an enormous cloud of doom has descended on the forums. The truth is, none of us really know what has, or hasn't happened at Intercept Games. Has Intercept been shuttered, hasn't it, the only people who can answer that is either a) the folks working on the game or b) Private Division / Take Two Interactive. Even then, in the event that Intercept is indeed dead, that doesn't necessarily mean Kerbal Space Program is dead, all of this is up in the air right now.

[ColdJ]

The title didn't give it away but I am guessing that this thread is about this and suggesting yes as well.

 

[Infinite Aerospace]

1 minute ago, ColdJ said:

The title didn't give it away but I am guessing that this thread is about this and suggesting yes as well.

 

Most new threads are about this right now, I mean that's not entirely surprising. But still, I'd rather know in an official capacity as to what has went down. Don't get me wrong it'll be a big shame if Intercept has been closed, as I feel they'd just turned a corner with the game with 0.2.2, it was a solid foundation to start adding features to and they were starting to do some really nice things with the visuals of the game, whilst bringing down memory usage and the likes.

[KerikBalm]

It seems pretty clear that IG is being shut down. Nate Simpson reportedly (I haven't checked) now lists his employer as Private Division, not Intercept Games.

While Intercept Games is clearly being shut down, what is not clear is the fate that awaits KSP2. The most optimistic but still realistic outcome is that they cobble together their unreleased content, and try to quickly put together a release version, followed by some bug fix patches, and end it.

Maybe in a few years if the playerbase hasn't died, they put out paid DLC.

[Stevie_D]

49 minutes ago, Infinite Aerospace said:

The truth is, none of us really know what has, or hasn't happened at Intercept Games. 

Actually, we do.
https://esd.wa.gov/about-employees/WARN
We know from previous Nate interviews and other sources there were around 70 or so employees at IG.
IG's studio was based in Seattle.
70 people have been laid off at the Seattle studio. That's the entire studio. After June that studio will be a building with 0 employees. You don't keep paying for a building that has 0 employees inside it.
If you intend to keep a studio going you do not sack all the staff. You sack X amount, and keep the employees you want to keep going in that building and then add in new people slowly over time.

That link also clearly states "closure" being the reason, meaning it is not just layoffs, it is the closure of the building or company.

You also don't close a studio down just to move those 70 employees elsewhere, especially when the corporate statement basically said they were downsizing their workforce. 
Nate now being listed as a Private Division employee also points to the fact Intercept Games is no more as an entity.
It is safe to assume a large portion of the people at IG were laid off. As was speculated, this could mean any who remain will be working from home, or get turned into a smaller new studio with a new physical office elsewhere. That's THE best case scenario.
 

And considering this game, at its current pace, was STILL looking like it was going to take years to complete with a team of 70, imagine how much longer it will take with a team half that size or smaller. Imagine how good the quality of the product might have been with a team of 70 (not great judging by the ineptitude shown so far) and imagine how crappy the quality of a product will be with half that or less. Or, as speculated, the other option is they just fumble through the colonies update and sell that as the "finished" product, ending production early. At best, keeping on an even smaller team to make interstellar and multiplayer as DLC.

Regardless of waiting for confirmation or not, there are enough facts on the ground to show that Take 2 are cutting back on this game big time and that it will not recover from this latest cataclysmic hammer blow. Why? Because what little social media and internet engagement this game already got will now fall off a cliff due to this news.  Because the majority of people like me, who barely checked in once every 2 months due to past ineptitude on the project, will barely check back in a year or two, ...or if ever.

That will mean less interest in the game, and Take 2 (as this whole debacle has proven) are led by metrics alone. If the numbers don't appear, they cut and cull.

So, even if KSP2 carries on in a zombified, necrofied corpse-husk of a shell, limping on and moaning "braaaains," with just 20 devs working on it, it will now get the one thing worse than the negative publicity it has already garnered - it will get no one showing ANY interest in it at all.

And that? That is the death knell of a game.



 

Edited May 3 by Stevie_D
typo

[MechBFP]

You are just making an assumption that is IG. We already know there was a separate  unannounced product in development but we have zero idea who or how many people were working on it, if it was a separate team, etc. 

Also PD supposedly has 5 floors worth of office space at that location. 70 people is not 5 floors worth of office space .

That unannounced project almost definitely would have been cut first over KSP2. So unless you actually know that locations internal structure and headcount, you don’t actually know anything. 

Edited May 3 by MechBFP

[Stevie_D]

2 minutes ago, MechBFP said:

That project almost definitely would have been cut first over KSP2.

Pure speculation and guesswork based on nothing. Many businesses would first cut loose a tainted product with negative reviews that isn't going to recover, over an untarnished project that is "clean" and doesn't have a bad reputation. It depends on the company. Hello Games had ALL their eggs in one basket, they had to turn around No Man's Sky because that games reputation WAS their studio's reputation. The two were intrinsically linked.

Take 2 can cut and cull almost anything they want except GTA and Red Dead.
 

[MechBFP]

Just now, Stevie_D said:

Pure speculation and guesswork based on nothing. Many businesses would first cut loose a tainted product with negative reviews that isn't going to recover, over an untarnished project that is "clean" and doesn't have a bad reputation. It depends on the company. Hello Games had ALL their eggs in one basket, they had to turn around No Man's Sky because that games reputation WAS their studio's reputation. The two were intrinsically linked.

Take 2 can cut and cull almost anything they want except GTA and Red Dead.
 

Indeed, it is pure guess work, I am not saying it isn’t. But I am also not acting like I know what is going on when I actually don’t. See the difference?

[calabus2]

9 minutes ago, MechBFP said:

You are just making an assumption that is IG. We already know there was a separate  unannounced product in development but we have zero idea who or how many people were working on it, if it was a separate team, etc. 

Also PD supposedly has 5 floors worth of office space at that location. 70 people is not 5 floors worth of office space .

That unannounced project almost definitely would have been cut first over KSP2. So unless you actually know that locations internal structure and headcount, you don’t actually know anything. 

IG did not occupy the entire building. There are multiple companies leasing space there not just IG. 

[MechBFP]

6 minutes ago, calabus2 said:

IG did not occupy the entire building. There are multiple companies leasing space there not just IG. 

Supposedly 5 floors are being rented by PD (therefore Take Two). Since the WARN notice says Take Two you can’t make any conclusions  based on that information alone. Need to wait for more information or leaks before being able to make any determination as to what happened to the actual staff working on the game. 

All could be let go, some could be let go. IG may or may not still exist as a separate entity as well. 

Edited May 3 by MechBFP

[The Aziz]

I think this is the most objective video you can find on the topic

tl;dw there are few possible outcomes, including one, and considering what we know from official sources, that's the most plausible, that IG is indeed gone, some devs have been pulled under Private Division and the development continues in some form directly under the eye of PD.

 

[Stevie_D]

Yup, Mr.ShadowZone showed his jouranalistic chops and impartiality with that video.

[GGG-GoodGuyGreg]

20 minutes ago, Stevie_D said:

Yup, Mr.ShadowZone showed his jouranalistic chops and impartiality with that video.

I don’t think so, at least not entirely. He claimed Nate hasn’t lied. 

[MechBFP]

9 minutes ago, GGG-GoodGuyGreg said:

I don’t think so, at least not entirely. He claimed Nate hasn’t lied. 

It’s clear you’re not a journalist if you don’t know why that is. 

Edited May 3 by MechBFP

[dprostock]

7 minutes ago, GGG-GoodGuyGreg said:

I don’t think so, at least not entirely. He claimed Nate hasn’t lied. 

Shadowzone is one of those who believe that they will no longer answer his cell phone if he speaks badly or tells the truth. The problem is that the people who answered his messages received the check for the end of tasks and he has been left spinning like a top. 

He's having a hard time publicly admitting that he's been duped, or knowing where things were going, he also stretched the circus for pure publicity. I think it was the latter, I knew well that this was going to die this year.

[Stevie_D]

Shadowzone basically pointed out what we know as confirmed "facts," why bad journalism will take words like "support a game" and misconstrue it to mean "development is saved/and/or continuing," and why you can only work out logical hypotheticals at this point.
He never claimed anything, unlike the other terrible gaming journalist websites have been doing.

That is called responsible journalism.

Edited May 3 by Stevie_D

[Infinite Aerospace]

30 minutes ago, GGG-GoodGuyGreg said:

I don’t think so, at least not entirely. He claimed Nate hasn’t lied. 

To be fair, it's entirely possible that Intercept has been shuttered and Nate didn't lie, it might have just been literally dropped on him and until that point, they've been fully funded and fully supported in the project. All I know is his Linkedin still states 'Creative Director of KSP2 team' and his employer as Private Division. Unsure as to whether he ever had Intercept Games as his employer or not.

[GGG-GoodGuyGreg]

31 minutes ago, dprostock said:

Shadowzone is one of those who believe that they will no longer answer his cell phone if he speaks badly or tells the truth. The problem is that the people who answered his messages received the check for the end of tasks and he has been left spinning like a top. 

He's having a hard time publicly admitting that he's been duped, or knowing where things were going, he also stretched the circus for pure publicity. I think it was the latter, I knew well that this was going to die this year.

IMO the only one who treated this with integrity was Scott Manley. Once he smelled something rotten he stopped covering the game entirely rather than resorting to mental gymnastics and try to assess what’s truth and what is a lie. 
The game is simply nothing like promised, and has been like that for years.

35 minutes ago, MechBFP said:

It’s clear you’re not a journalist if you don’t know why that is. 

Again this argument that if you’re not a game developer you can’t have a say, and if you’re not a journalist you can’t call out a liar. 
sorry but this is a simplistic look at things. Others have covered a lot about what was said and what was actually done if any. 

[Stevie_D]

To be fair, Scott was pivoting away from Kerbal even before KSP2 was announced. His main interest is science and spaceflight and he realized his KSP coverage had given him the Youtube platform to do just that.

Edited May 3 by Stevie_D