IGN reports: T2 wants to get rid of the IP, they want to offload PD completely.

[Tony Tony Chopper]

News in sight: It's even worse. Thanks for Matt Lowne for posting this on X.

https://www.ign.com/articles/take-two-is-quietly-killing-private-division

[WelshSteW]

 

I take this as absolutely brilliant news. The game has a chance of being picked up by someone who actually wants to make something of it, rather than just being mothballed and left to rot.

 

[Tony Tony Chopper]

Well...
 

Quote

IGN has learned that discussions took place for such a deal with strategy game publisher Paradox Interactive, but fell through, and it's unclear if another buyer will materialize in time.

I think it won't turn out to be that simple.

[Fizzlebop Smith]

So Maybe there is hope some angel investor or savior will emerge to salvage the IP.

I can dream.

[MARL_Mk1]

Sigh.

I'll take that green frog IP. *slides $1 on the table*

It ain't much, but it isn't like Take Two deserves any more than that. Shame that they are going to make billions from GTA alone.

Edited May 31 by MARL_Mk1

[Gurkonier]

I also think, it's great news. There is hope for KSP 2. And maybe there is someone who truly wants to develop the KSP 2 we all want.

For me KSP 2 was at the point, where it finally made fun to play. I was always hopeful and i will be hopeful until the end.

[Lisias]

1 hour ago, WelshSteW said:

I take this as absolutely brilliant news. The game has a chance of being picked up by someone who actually wants to make something of it, rather than just being mothballed and left to rot.

Not necessarily. The risk of the IP ending up being used on Pachinkos or even a Kerbal Farm on Facebook is also pretty near now.

[MARL_Mk1]

I wonder how much at risk these forums and all the official resources within them will be in the mid-long term future. Yes, I know Dakota said the forums and Discord won't go anywhere, but Dakota will be laid off in exactly 28 days and whatever happens after that is completely out of his knowledge.

If there is any way to make an archival copy of all the contents, I would very much support the effort

[MechBFP]

Little surprise. They create a new division, run it like any of their own divisions, finds out indie development is completely different from those other divisions.

*shocked Pikachu face*

[PDCWolf]

Please people, read the news, it's actually pretty horrible:

Quote

A small crew remains to support the remaining announced games with which Private Division has publishing deals: Moon Studios' No Rest for the Wicked (which is currently in early access), Wētā Workshop's Tales of the Shire, and an untitled project from Game Freak.

So the game is dead.

Quote

The publisher has been in talks to find a buyer for the Kerbal Space Program IP, with or without Intercept Games attached. IGN has learned that discussions took place for such a deal with strategy game publisher Paradox Interactive, but fell through, and it's unclear if another buyer will materialize in time.

They did try to sell the IP with or without the amateur studio, even the most parasitic publisher out there skipped on the deal.

Quote

Take-Two is also in discussions to sell off Private Division, and has found interest from a private equity firm. Though a deal has not been agreed upon yet, sources were aware that conversations are being facilitated in part by individuals with connections to Moon Studios leadership. But two of my sources expressed apprehension about such a deal and its connections, citing a 2022 VentureBeat report alleging "oppressive" work conditions at Moon Studios. One source I spoke with confirmed that "everything" in the report was "true and worse" and another called the studio's founders "cruel" and "a nightmare" to work with.

Not only did they fail to sell the IP, they failed to sell their Indie uplifting business. KSP2 might've just ruined everything for PD or at least been the straw that broke the camel's back.

 

[cocoscacao]

9 minutes ago, PDCWolf said:

Please people, read the news

Sources please? I don't dispute the truthfulness of those quotes, I'm just not interested into digging 'em out.

Edited June 1 by cocoscacao
e to o

[PDCWolf]

Just now, cocoscacao said:

Sources please? I don't dispute the truthfulness of those quotes, I'm just not interested into digging out those things.

It's literally inside the OPs link.

[MechBFP]

9 minutes ago, PDCWolf said:

KSP2 might've just ruined everything for PD or at least been the straw that broke the camel's back

For someone who has historically complained about wishful thinking, you are still just full of the stuff.

[Lisias]

6 minutes ago, PDCWolf said:

Not only did they fail to sell the IP, they failed to sell their Indie uplifting business. KSP2 might've just ruined everything for PD or at least been the straw that broke the camel's back.

KSP2 was their lifeline  - check the others P.D. titles launched near or at the same time KSP2 and you will realize that they launched KSP2 in desperation to get some results before the Cutting Throat Fest©.

Things are way worse than we thought.

[Heretic391]

Wow, fingers crossed it gets sold to someone competent. However, how greedy do you guys think TT is? They would certainly want to recoup their losses and ask for a price way higher than what the ksp IP is currently worth. It may explain why the Paradox deal fell through (i'm speculating!)

 

Overall, this is hugely disappointing. If only those terrible execs/managers didn't screw the game from the start (as per Shadowzones findings).

[cocoscacao]

1 minute ago, PDCWolf said:

It's literally inside the OPs link.

Well... sh...oot. My bad

[PDCWolf]

12 minutes ago, MechBFP said:

For someone who has historically complained about wishful thinking, you are still just full of the stuff.

I mean, it's literally written in the article, didn't do much thinking, much less wishful.

9 minutes ago, Heretic391 said:

Wow, fingers crossed it gets sold to someone competent. However, how greedy do you guys think TT is? They would certainly want to recoup their losses and ask for a price way higher than what the ksp IP is currently worth. It may explain why the Paradox deal fell through (i'm speculating!)

 

Overall, this is hugely disappointing. If only those terrible execs/managers didn't screw the game from the start (as per Shadowzones findings).

The way it's written... it seems nobody wants it rather than T2 wanting lots of money for it.

@Lisias KSP2 was the only title to get an aggressive marketing campaign too! their other titles are pretty much unheard of.

Edited June 1 by PDCWolf

[Scarecrow71]

1 hour ago, MARL_Mk1 said:

I wonder how much at risk these forums and all the official resources within them will be in the mid-long term future. Yes, I know Dakota said the forums and Discord won't go anywhere, but Dakota will be laid off in exactly 28 days and whatever happens after that is completely out of his knowledge.

If there is any way to make an archival copy of all the contents, I would very much support the effort

Discord isn't going anywhere as it isn't controlled by Take Two.  The forums...yeah, not sure.

[Observe]

I wonder how much they want for the KSP IP? Would it be possible for the community to pool resources and buy it in some fashion? I don't know if such a thing would be possible, or how it might work.

[Great Liao]

 

3 minutes ago, Observe said:

I wonder how much they want for the KSP IP? Would it be possible for the community to pool resources and buy it in some fashion? I don't know if such a thing would be possible, or how it might work.

**Adds 10$ to the kickstarter**

[Scarecrow71]

3 minutes ago, Observe said:

I wonder how much they want for the KSP IP? Would it be possible for the community to pool resources and buy it in some fashion? I don't know if such a thing would be possible, or how it might work.

[PDCWolf]

22 minutes ago, Observe said:

I wonder how much they want for the KSP IP? Would it be possible for the community to pool resources and buy it in some fashion? I don't know if such a thing would be possible, or how it might work.

I know this is mostly a joke, but I've gotta ask: And then what? Who from "the community" gets the rights? how does "the community" approve or disapprove licensing? Who even is the "community"? Just the people that fund the purchase or anyone with a forum account?

[MARL_Mk1]

1 hour ago, Scarecrow71 said:

Discord isn't going anywhere as it isn't controlled by Take Two.  The forums...yeah, not sure.

Honestly I couldn't give more of a crap about the Discord. But if the KSP forums were to be closed tomorrow (hypothetical scenario), the game itself would be done for.

Every piece of material, discussion, mod pages, custom configurations, guides, a literal decade of ongoing resources about Kerbal Space Program as we know it. Gone. 
Yes, I know the mods and most files and resources aren't hosted through the forums. They are on Github, Spacedock, etc. But these forums are a fundamental piece of the game. 

@Dakota @Nerdy_Mike I know the whole deal about not being able to say anything about the ongoing events because of NDAs, but could you guys comment on if there are any guarantees about these forums staying online for the foreseeable future? I know Dakota has said so in the past, after knowing about the Take-Two WARN notice, and I quote: "this server isn't going anywhere any time soon. same with the forums.".

But what certainty do we have about this statement? We also were told "We're funded, KSP2 isn't going anywhere"  yet here we stand today. If the KSP IP were to be sold to god knows who, I'm supposing they'd be on their absolute right to just cut the plug completely at will (Or am I wrong? I really hope I am).

KSP2's fate hurts, but losing these forums in any way in the future would be even more devastating to Kerbal Space Program as a whole.

 

Edited June 1 by MARL_Mk1

[Lisias]

7 hours ago, Observe said:

I wonder how much they want for the KSP IP? 

Well, given the estimates of how much they wast... invested on KSP2's one, at least 100M USD (and I'm plain ignoring how much they paid Squad for the franchise).

Now, if they will find someone willing to pay it... This is completely another history.

Just for starters:

• The thingy was terribly review bombed on Steam - really bad;
• There're campaigns for mass refunding around the globe - from AU to UK;
• KSP2 Source Code is probably a bag of technical debits beyound salvage;
• KSP1 Source Code suffered 6 years (at least) of severe bit rotting;
• 3rd parties are coding fixes for the game;
• And some of them are not even respecting the game's very EULA, creating a serious precedent.

Last time I saw so many problems together, the Corporation sold the whole division for a tiny fraction of the Division's assets value - essentially, Siemens sold Mobile for the net loss of the previous fiscal year, disregarding anything else - but the buyer acquired a whole industry, with manufacturing plants included.

What a prospecting buyer would acquire by burn... investing money on Private Division? Buildings? Manufacturing plants? A shrinking but still relatively active market share? A distribution network at least?

Giving a small enough price, anyone will buy it. But how small is too small? When Microsoft ditched Nokia, they wrote it off as losses on their Taxes...

Edited June 1 by Lisias
Entertaining grammars made slightely less entertaining...

[K^2]

5 hours ago, Fizzlebop Smith said:

So Maybe there is hope some angel investor or savior will emerge to salvage the IP.

Angels operate in a completely different price range. It's hard to say precisely how much T2 would be looking for, but it's pretty safe to say that it'd be in tens of millions. I have seen companies raise that as a seed, but that takes some extraordinary circumstances, and even then, you still need an operational budget.

It's not absolutely impossible for an independent studio to obtain the KSP IP and make a game, but they will need backing from a publisher who will be expecting to turn a profit on this, so the only way it could happen is if some very well established names are behind it. And I don't really see this as likely.

The actual most likely option, outside of the IP just getting iced at T2 indefinitely, is a studio buying it in expectation to crank out a bunch of cheap games exploiting the marketability of Kerbals. It's not the worst outcome, because if they do a good job with that, they will give a proper KSP sequel a go some ways down the line, but it won't be soon.

All in all, this news has robbed me of what little optimism I still held on to. KSP2 is dead, and Kerbal IP is either going on ice or will only result in non-rocket-building games for a while.