Can we please get an update as to what’s going on?

[HammerTyme]

Anything?     It’s been almost a week since all this chaos started. It would be nice to have some official confirmation as to what future plans on.  Is KSP2 really just straight up dead? Thrown out the window? Is there going to be a new team working on it?   Surely there’s been some internal discussion. 
 

It would just be nice if the community could get some info… 

[cocoscacao]

Something tells me dev team is equally, if not more, frustrated that they cannot speak up.

[The Aziz]

The chaos is caused by rumors alone. The official data is clear.

[cocoscacao]

1 hour ago, The Aziz said:

The official data is clear.

And what does it say?

[K33N]

2 minutes ago, cocoscacao said:

And what does it say?

The company is closed and almost everyone has been let go. 

...

You can infer that KSP2 is almost certainly dead because they aren't in firefighting mode addressing the rumors.

[chefsbrian]

2 hours ago, HammerTyme said:

Anything?     It’s been almost a week since all this chaos started. It would be nice to have some official confirmation as to what future plans on.  Is KSP2 really just straight up dead? Thrown out the window? Is there going to be a new team working on it?   Surely there’s been some internal discussion. 
 

It would just be nice if the community could get some info… 

Updates require knowing what they are doing. Hard info tells us there's layoffs amounting to the entire studio, statements have been made indicating 'someone' is responsible for continuing KSP2 but nobody has actually said "its me", and speculation is that the statements are just PR cover for there being no team, either as an interim or permanently for a void.

From that, the most likely conclusion is there is no update or statement to it because there is nobody to make that update or statement - Either the remaining elements of the dev team have nothing to say because their work is now "spin down and document what you can before leaving", or the teams already full boot across the board and Take2 hasn't actually bothered to put anyone into the transition role yet.

My personal opinion is that the team is full boot and the successors have not yet been selected, as in this nebulous state of the gaming industry, the last thing you want to do is work quietly - it makes you easy to fire. Any team transitioning into the project would be shouting it to the stars themselves, just to make it harder for another gutting to take place in the next couple months. Take2 similarly has little incentive to try and gag a transition team, as its nothing but positive PR for them to be able to confirm that someone is indeed picking up the game, if that really is their intent.

[GGG-GoodGuyGreg]

At best I expect un update on or shortly after the T2 earnings call on the 16th. 

[Vexillar]

Just now, GGG-GoodGuyGreg said:

At best I expect an update on or shortly after the T2 earnings call on the 16th. 

Right. That's how business works.  T2 will say nothing more until then, and there's no-one left at IG who is a position to talk: anyone still at their desk will be focused on tying up the loose ends and under a strict NDA.

So - sad to say, but we have to twiddle our thumbs for at least another week.

[Skorj]

Someone unpinned all the sticky threads on the Steam forum, so there's at least one person employed by T2 who remembers that KSP2 exists.

[The Aziz]

2 hours ago, cocoscacao said:

And what does it say?

-studio will be closed
-a number of people are laid off
-work continues in some way under PD.

[cocoscacao]

6 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

-work continues in some way under PD.

For 50$, EA and general censorship on development, some way (unverified) is equivalent of showing us all a middle finger. Thanks T2.  

Edited May 9 by cocoscacao

[The Aziz]

15 minutes ago, cocoscacao said:

(unverified)

I could bring up the statements but you aren't gonna believe them anyway so what's the point ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[cocoscacao]

8 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

I could bring up the statements but you aren't gonna believe them anyway so what's the point

The point is to yell back at them for the reasons above.

[Pthigrivi]

Yeah I mean its pretty clear they've laid off all of the people who would have fulfilled the roadmap to 1.0. If its sold to another studio it'll be years before they could wrap their minds around it and release something and if they don't it probably just stays mothballed in its current state, which is honestly truly terrible corporate behavior. Im quite sure I'll never buy another PD or T2 product again if this is how they treat their customers and employees. 

[herbal space program]

27 minutes ago, Pthigrivi said:

Im quite sure I'll never buy another PD or T2 product again if this is how they treat their customers and employees. 

I agree in principle, but I might have to make an exception for Civ VII if that ever drops. That's the problem when these companies get so big -- they gain control over so many things it becomes really hard to boycott them.

[Cryptobux]

2 hours ago, Skorj said:

Someone unpinned all the sticky threads on the Steam forum, so there's at least one person employed by T2 who remembers that KSP2 exists.

And here's the top reply in the Cancelation Predictions Steam forum thread, obvious now that the pins are gone. This guy is clairvoyant:

 

Dalek1967 22 Aug, 2023 @ 8:05pm 

 

    

I hope they don't cancel the game, but if I was writing the checks I would probably pull the plug. It's dead on steamdb, YouTube, and Twitch.

I'm not in marketing, but it seems to me that you:
1) Contact members of the media (soon) and start rumors of a big patch in December with a final price of $70
2) At the start of December announce your plans for a big patch to be rolled out by the end of the year.
3) For December put the game on sale for $10 off and advertise it as a "last chance".
4) Delay the patch until Jan 15th or so to limit returns.
5) Quietly start transferring people off the team
6) Release a subset of the broken features and promise more to come. Call it 1.0.
7) Go quiet, and leave a skeleton team.
8) In end-of-business-year in March announce that you are shutting down the project and/or studio.

Last edited by Dalek1967; 22 Aug, 2023 @ 8:06pm

[HammerTyme]

This is such a huge bummer… KSP has a pretty big community. Maybe not compared to some other massive AAA games. But as a whole, KSP has had a decent community for a long time. It’s not like it’s just some random indie game that makes it part way through development and vanishes.  I can’t imagine it truly is the end of this game… I really hope at the very least, another studio will pick this up somehow and continue to carry the touch.   Even if it means the game will take even longer to finish. I’m ok with that.  I just don’t want to see this game come to an end. 
 

Almost reminds me of the Apollo program in the early 70s.   It sucks that it ended. It makes you wonder how far humanity would be in terms of real space exploration if it would have continued in full force over the years.  I don’t want this same ironic fate to happen to Kerbal space program. This game has so much potential.  
 

As a huge space fan.  This just hurts my soul seeing this happen. 

Edited May 9 by HammerTyme

[EvilBroccoli]

They have been silent for longer periods than 1 week so...... yeah it´s not out of character for IG to ignore the community for ages

[K^2]

15 hours ago, K33N said:

You can infer that KSP2 is almost certainly dead because they aren't in firefighting mode addressing the rumors.

12 hours ago, The Aziz said:

-work continues in some way under PD.

I think it's kind of funny that I find both of these to be somewhat true. We know that somebody's still working on a patch behind the scenes. But also, without the team, feature work is dead. Not necessarily permanently, but "Until further notice." KSP2 is completely dead and very much alive.

Schrodinger's game.

_{Horror movie trailer voice.} On May 16th, the box will open.

[Infinite Aerospace]

Thing is, if Intercept is dead, closed, gone forever. Whom is updating the development branches on Steam, three of them have been updated literally twenty minutes ago, which is interesting as it's 06:37 AM over in Seattle right now. 

[MechBFP]

3 minutes ago, Infinite Aerospace said:

Thing is, if Intercept is dead, closed, gone forever. Whom is updating the development branches on Steam, three of them have been updated literally twenty minutes ago, which is interesting as it's 06:37 AM over in Seattle right now. 

A lot of people worked remotely for Intercept, and from different timezones.

[cocoscacao]

6 minutes ago, Infinite Aerospace said:

Whom is updating the development branches on Steam

They're in the office until June, no?

[The Aziz]

Yes. Somehow some people failed to notice that in the midst of shouting and screaming.

[Chilkoot]

3 hours ago, K^2 said:

I think it's kind of funny that I find both of these to be somewhat true.

You're spot on here.  I've been on the other side of these transitions, and it's likely "in both states" meaning some critical decisions are made/imposed (financial axe falling) and some are still being hashed out - even very fundamental ones related to IP ownership, forward distribution channels, studio financing (if any), etc.

Typically, cards will be played extremely close to the chest by senior leadership until there is ink on paper.  That means even senior studio folks and publisher staff won't have a clue what's going on.  Providing too much insight before things are solidified runs the risk of crossing into "insider info" territory, which is kind of monumentally bad for a publicly traded company, esp. a few days ahead of an earnings call.

Why are things still undecided?  Whoever holds this IP when the dust settles inherits a huge risk factor:   Steam.  Steam reviews can make or break a title, and KSP2 reviews/public sentiment are in the gutter.  The problem is that Steam has rigid controls to prevent "rebranding" a game with a new store entry, changing prices, and in general cutting bait and trying to start fresh.  The only time I recall seeing a game successfully wipe the review slate clean is when Microsoft bought out inXile and the flailing Bard's Tale IV game was given a new ID/store entry under "Director's Cut".  I've def. been on the inside when publishers inherit a mess and then fail to turn it around b/c of the unshakable ball-and-chain imposed by Steam.

There is no easy path to "just sell the IP and get a small/hungry studio working on it".  There is too much baggage, and there's a ton of financial+liability mess around shutting it down and starting up "KSP 2.5" or even"KSP 3".  If anything rises from the ashes, it will be heavily burdened already.

Edited May 10 by Chilkoot

[cocoscacao]

5 minutes ago, Chilkoot said:

Whoever holds this IP when the dust settles inherits a huge risk factor

And I'm very curious how they'll handle it. But spreading that information will be prolonged as long as possible.