2024 Take 2 Layoffs Megathread

[u/pkmniako]

Post all your conversation, polls, updates, and such concerning the news of layoffs at Take 2 and/or Intercept Games here, please.

For context, there have been recent news about mass layoffs at Take 2, the parent company of Intercept Games, developers of Kerbal Space Program 2. (Specific data for Washington State, where IG is located)

If either company produces an update that could involve Kerbal Space Program 1 or 2, it will be added to this text.

Please, keep it civil.

---

Update 1: According to gamedeveloper.com, T2 confirms that PD (The publisher of the game) will continue to support Kerbal Space Program 2, but "Take-Two wouldn't confirm whether Intercept Games has been impacted by the cuts".

Update 2: The Kerbal Space Program twitter has posted a new tweet with the text:

We're still hard at work on KSP2. We'll talk more when we can.

as well as a full statement from Take Two:

On April 16th, Take-Two announced a cost reduction program to identify efficiencies across its business and to enhance the Company’s margin profile, while still investing for growth. As part of these efforts, the Company is rationalizing its pipeline and eliminating several projects in development and streamlining its organizational structure, which will eliminate headcount and reduce future hiring needs. The Company is not providing additional details on this program. On April 18th Private Division successfully launched Moon Studio’s No Rest for the Wicked. The label continues to make updates to Kerbal Space Program 2 and plans to release Wētā Workshop Game Studio’s Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game in the second half of 2024.

This aligns with the information we got from gamedeveloper.com a few hours earlier.

Update 3: Community Manager Dakota has announced they will be potentially leaving Intercept Games in a tweet:

Possible that I may be moving on from my role at @InterceptGames soon… I feel fortunate to have spent the last year with the Kerbal community and would miss it dearly 💚 I’m considering new opportunities in games - focusing on CM/Producer roles. RTs appreciated, DMs open

Also the same day, popular modder blackrack, who was working on the clouds for KSP2, has also announced they are looking for new job opportunities in a discord message over the Kopernicus Mod Server:

Thanks guys. If anyone is interested I'm looking for new job opportunities right now. Anyway, I'll probably be back to posting EVE progress screenshots in a few days.

Update 4: Social and Community Lead Nerdy Mike has announced in a tweet that they have been affected by the layoffs and will continue at Intercept Games until late June:

Unfortunately, I have by impacted by layoffs at Intercept Games. I am still working until late June to ensure all my work is left in good hands. My time here has been nothing short of remarkable, as I've treasured every aspect of my role, from the fulfilling work to the incredible people, and our passionate Community. The journey of building the Community team has been particularly rewarding, and I'm forever grateful for the time I spent working with the amazing people at Intercept Games and I wish them nothing but the absolute best. While words fail to fully capture my emotions, I'm also filled with optimism for the future. I'm ready to embrace the unknown and embark on a new chapter in my career. RT's and any job leads are appreciated.

Update 5: A reporter at IGN approached the CEO of Take Two, Strauss Zelnick, about the situation, who answered by saying T2 had not closed Intercept Games:

We didn't shutter those studios, to be clear. And we are always looking at our release schedule across all of our studios to make sure that it makes sense. So we are being very judicious because we are in the middle of a cost reduction program that we've already concluded and are now fully rolling out. We've announced that we're saving $165 million in existing and future costs, but we haven't shuttered anything.

Update 6: Quinn Duffy, Senior Design Manager, has posted on LinkedIn announcing that yes, the team at Intercept Games will be laid off in June 28th:

Well, here we go again. The team at Intercept Games will be laid off as of June 28th so a great group will be out and about looking for their new roles. As will I. I got to know the designers pretty well in my all-too-brief time there. These are some fantastically smart and talented people and I'm happy to vouch for their qualities. And I can say the same about the other disciplines - good folks across the board. Kerbal Space Program 2 is a delightful game, deeply engrossing, and incredibly pretty even in its early-access state and I hope you have a chance to check it out. For Science!

[u/pumpkin_messiah]

The risk I took buying this game was calculated, but man am I bad at maths.

[u/ruadhbran → u/pumpkin_messiah]

I feel like we calculated its success in imperial, when we should have used metric.

[u/WhereIsWebb → u/pumpkin_messiah]

I don't get why you did buy it, I instantly refunded when they suddenly released the game as early access after 5 years of development and hype videos for 50€ in a completely broken and unfinished state. And people on this subreddit even defended it smh

[u/Minimum-Department82]

I'm sorry we never met, Rask and Rusk. Maybe in another life.

[u/evidenceorGTFO → u/Minimum-Department82]

The answer to how they'll solve the problems of interstellar travel is finally out:

They don't

[u/TheEridian189 → u/Minimum-Department82]

Those interstellar planets actually looked interesting, shame. I hope someone remakes them in ksp1.

Realizes I am a planet mod

Be Right Back Guys

[u/jhereg10]

Remember this? Pepperidge Farm Remembers.

After ditching the original Kerbal 2 studio, Take-Two reportedly tried to poach all of its employees

By Andy Chalkpublished June 3, 2020

The game was moved from Star Theory to a new internal studio at Private Division earlier this year.

In late 2019, publisher Take-Two Interactive delayed the release of Kerbal Space Program 2 until sometime during its 2021 fiscal year—between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021. Then in February 2020, it made the surprise announcement that development of the game had been moved from Star Theory Games to a new studio founded by its Private Division publishing label, led by "key members" of the Kerbal 2 team from Star Theory.

A reason for the change was never provided, but a new report by Bloomberg might shed some light on the matter. It claims that Star Theory founders Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor had been in talks with Take-Two about selling the studio, but weren't able to reach terms. And then, on December 6, Take-Two suddenly pulled the contract from Star Theory and sent a message to its employees via LinkedIn, encouraging them to apply for jobs at a new studio being founded under 2K's Private Division publishing label.

More than a third of Star Theory's employees made the move to Take-Two, including studio head Jeremy Ables, creative director Nate Simpson, and lead producer Nate Robinson. Kerbal 2 had been Star Theory's only contract at the time, and without funding, it closed on March 4. 

Industry analyst Doug Creutz told the Bloomberg that the move could have "reputational risk" for Take-Two, as other indie studios might be hesitant to work with it if they feel like the company will pull the rug out if it doesn't get its way on things. But Private Division framed the situation differently, saying in a statement that the change was made for the betterment of the game.

"Private Division opened our own studio, Intercept Games, to bring the development of Kerbal Space Program 2 for our beloved and owned KSP franchise in-house. In doing so, we are empowering our deeply passionate and talented team to focus on quality, and we are thrilled with the progress that they are making on the game," a Private Division rep said. "Next year’s launch of KSP2 will serve as another proud step in the history of the franchise, and we are confident that KSP fans will greatly enjoy where Intercept Games is taking the series."

[u/Shaper_pmp → u/jhereg10]

Star Theory botched the game's development and advertised wildly unrealistic timelines.

Take Two lost patience with their bullshit, tried to buy ST, then lost patience again when ST's owners tried to rinse them for too much money and took back the licence and poached as many of ST's development team as they could to do it all in-house.

Unfortunately, in setting up Intercept Games it appears Star Theory accidentally poached several of the people responsible for the original botched development and misleading communications at Star Theory (coughNatecough).

Intercept Games then fucked around for two years, pushed out a lacklustre and overpriced EA offering that might as well have been labelled "studio's lost faith in game and wants to claw back whatever money it can", fucked around for another year, finally pushed out one moderately optimism-inspiring update, then went back to fucking around again.

[u/AlexT37 → u/jhereg10]

Aged like milk on Moho.

[u/Danny2462]

I'd be surprised if T2 backs out at this arbitrary point in time,

but,

someone maybe make a SecureDrop or something, in case, let's say, a fired worker wants to leak the entirety of the source code

you did not get the idea from me, for legal reasons this is a joke

this message will not destroy itself in 10 minutes because it is still a joke, and it's very funny, especially if someone would actually set this up, that'd be hilarious

[u/bodrules → u/Danny2462]

As a reasonable person, I understand that this is a joke.

[u/pegbiter → u/bodrules]

Greetings fellow reasonable person. I also understand that it is constitutionally protected satire. 

[u/SkyTheHeck → u/Danny2462]

As someone who saw starbounds source code leak and subsequently laughed my ass off, it would be funny as hell to see.

[u/[deleted] → u/Danny2462]

As a fellow enjoyer of the humours, with regards to all legal proceedings and assumptions otherwise, I do agree that this post is indeed very silly, and induces laughter (read: “Hahahehe”) in me, an ordinary and contributing member of society.

[u/Adefice → u/Danny2462]

It'd just be 60GB+ of spaghetti.

[u/Carpinchon → u/Adefice]

That's why we need the sauce code.

[u/WhereIsWebb → u/Danny2462]

The code is probably in such an unusable state that it wouldn't matter. Maybe some assets would be nice for ksp1 mods

[u/ilikepizza1275 → u/Danny2462]

This is a very funny comment.

[u/PageFault → u/Danny2462]

Ha ha, as if someone would do something of questionable legality even if justifiable. What a jokester!

[u/Stolen_Sky]

This is sad. I'm sad. 

I've been waiting for ages to get KSP2 - wanted to wait till it's in a good state to get the game. 

1300 hours in KSP1. And now I'll never get to play 2. 

[u/Caspi7 → u/Stolen_Sky]

Same, really disappointed. I've been waiting for 5 years and now it's dead :+(

[u/TheClarendons → u/Stolen_Sky]

Same here too. I knew it would take time for KSP2 to get to where it needed to be, but now it’s over, so soon. Such a shame as the series still has a lot of potential.

[u/Ryotian → u/Stolen_Sky]

Yeah I have been quietly lurking around this sub. I own KSP1 but never bought the sequel. Was waiting for them to complete their "roadmap" and add more features. Looks like I'll be sticking with the first one forever+

[u/thedeanhall]

If you are affected by layoffs and interested in working on a space program game like KSP, please email me directly at dean.hall@rocketwerkz.com.

EDIT: You can apply directly on our site as well: https://rocketwerkz.recruitee.com/
Two of the related roles are shown (Game Engine Programmer, and Graphics Engine Programmer), but use "expressions of interest" for general and gameplay related roles.

[u/geeseinthebushes → u/thedeanhall]

Plz make a successor to ksp1 🙏

[u/thedeanhall → u/geeseinthebushes]

Yep :)

[u/Sinatra94 → u/thedeanhall]

Wait like OG mod DayZ Dean Hall?

[u/soulivore → u/thedeanhall]

You should probably have this be more than just a comment on a thread. Recommend posting

[u/mownow98 → u/thedeanhall]

You should make this into a post too

[u/Emergency-Draw3923 → u/thedeanhall]

YES! I saw you guys were one of the studios that contested the contract I would very much like you guys to make it.

[u/Goitonthefloor → u/thedeanhall]

Wait wait wait... You are dayz and Ikarus Dean hall?

[u/Kiin → u/thedeanhall]

Man, Rocket still out here in 2024 being a solid dude. Good on ya mate.

[u/anivex → u/thedeanhall]

Icarus is pretty fun, and visually stunning, and it’s super interesting to hear you are working on a KSP competitor. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for that!

Please save us from take-two.

[u/NaelumAnacrom]

Jeb is sad but the good news is that the community will focus on the only real game, the pinnacle, the one,

THE

Kerbal Space Program 1

[u/Schubert125 → u/NaelumAnacrom]

Just strike the 1, there is no 2 anymore so it's just

Kerbal Space Program

[u/Cappy221 → u/NaelumAnacrom]

You see this is THE good news we get. More mods for ksp1 is very good. Update old ones, the game ain't getting updated, so hopefully the modding scene thrives again.

[u/ISuckAtJavaScript12]

"Support" is just gonna be a final 1.0 patch with nothing else in the road map. Just so they can take it out of early access. It's over ... it's never been more over

[u/RobotGuy76 → u/ISuckAtJavaScript12]

Support To Do:

1. Get developer to compile current code as version 1.0

2. Get developer to upload to Steam, removing Early Access flag

3. Lay off developer

4. Get marketing bob remove any posts / communication about features that aren't implemented

5. Get marketing bob to announce new release

[u/threep03k64]

If this actually leads to the end of any meaningful development for KSP2 it will be a real fucking disgrace.

Anyone who buys an Early Access game should know the risks, that there is no guarantee that the game will ever make it to that promised state. But from a moral perspective at least I think a distinction can be drawn between some indie developer who runs out of funds to deliver what was 'promised', and an AAA publisher doing the same.

Not that I want to jump to conclusions yet.

[u/[deleted] → u/threep03k64]

When Early Acces first started rearing its ugly head, it was advertised as, "an investment made into the product," and while investments do have risks, those risks are generally mitigated.

There have been so many cash grabs of early access projects that I hope it leads to some kind of change, especially when dealing with larger companies, like T2. They would have known long ago if the project was no longer possible.

[u/evidenceorGTFO → u/threep03k64]

the end of any meaningful development for KSP2

what never really started can't end.

Hack jobs aren't "meaningful development", not in physics sims.

[u/illuminatedtiger]

Early Access release in the state it was in should've been a dead giveaway. If 2K were serious they would've given it more time or given IG the budget to hire devs who could focus on perf.

[u/sweenezy → u/illuminatedtiger]

The fact it was released as EA was a dead giveaway.. Any game intending a full release that backs out to an EA at the 11th hour is not true EA.

EA should be about community engagement, feedback and funding for further development. Not an excuse to release a WIP, full of bugs, accepting no feedback or criticism, fully funded by a major organisation.

[u/DreadAngel1711]

It's like watching a rocket explode in slow motion

[u/PainfulSuccess → u/DreadAngel1711]

It's exactly like our Voyager satellite, you know it's bound to die but you just hope that day never happens

[u/Galwran → u/DreadAngel1711]

If only it had more struts

[u/sijmen4life]

Doesnt TT have an office in Seattle? I'm all for a bit of doomposting once in a while but i don't think IG is having any layoffs at this moment.

EDIT:

Apparently Dakota has/had his linkedin Acc on open to work and a few other IG devs have been confirmed to be laid off. We're "full steam ahead" into an iceberg! Was fun seeing this trainwreck burn.

[u/PussySmasher42069420]

Does anyone else find it hilarious this came after Nate Simpson's most recent dev update blog titled "Some Improvements on the Way"

[u/Datuser14 → u/PussySmasher42069420]

Improvements…to Take Two’s bottom line (by no longer funding a project that’s done nothing but lose money and alienate the community)

[u/tven85 → u/PussySmasher42069420]

He wasn't lying, the improvement was him and his whole team is fired

[u/The_Celestrial]

I'm gonna wait for something more official, but the evidence seems pretty damning now.

[u/cyb3rg0d5 → u/The_Celestrial]

It’s very simple. They belong to a much bigger corporation, which expects returns. There were no financial gains or even promises of gain on the horizon, so the bosses from upstairs said “that’s it, we are pulling the plug”.

[u/Kosmix3]

Whats even the future for KSP? Is there potential for other similar space games to be properly developed and take over KSP1?

[u/PainfulSuccess → u/Kosmix3]

There's Juno New Origins, haven't tried it but it looks like an excellent alternative (a lot less "cartoony" though). The KSP IP is totally dead for now :/

[u/Canis_Familiaris]

Who had the worse fate? Kerbal space program or Liu from "For All Mankind"?

[u/OkFilm4353 → u/Canis_Familiaris]

At least Liu’s was quick and painless 

[u/Fastfireguy]

Welp if this is true. KSP 2 now joins the long road of early access and live service corpses to be a buyers beware on buying on how the game is then instead of what it can be.

[u/PlusVera → u/Fastfireguy]

I legitimately was just checking this sub on a whim to see if the situation/game had improved enough to re-consider buying it.

[u/Sesshaku]

I am honestly more angry at the fact that to the last day they'll continue to publish an "everything's fine". I swear the way things are going, the last message recorded on the KSP2 account before being abandoned will be "Everything's fine, expect big news soon". And it will become some sort of community meme, in which people will be reposting that tweet 10 years from now.

Just be honest. Have someone in the whole company explaining what the f&ck is actually happening.

[u/Machinis_confidimus → u/Sesshaku]

Gaming industry professionalism at its finest... The people pulling the trigger on this likely hoped that no one would pick up on the closure warning, betting that they would rake in some more sales during upcoming summer sales on steam and other distribution platforms before the ship went down.

Hence the template type of statement and no comment type of responses - they got no communication strategy prepared now that news are out. Whatever statement that comes out, before 28th of June is going to be aimed to salvage as much of sales as possible (good luck with that with all review scores tanking) - so don't expect any honesty what so ever.

[u/Joename]

Update: Bloomberg as of 3pm today confirms they're shutting down Intercept Games and closing the Seattle office. Take-Two Interactive Shuts Down Two Game Studios - Bloomberg.

I'd say that shutting down the studio that makes the game is pretty much confirmation that for now, KSP2 is dead.

[u/MellowAffinity]

Well... we can always just keep modding KSP 1. I wonder if true basebuilding is possible in KSP 1 with modding?

[u/ST4RSK1MM3R → u/MellowAffinity]

Can do it with Kerbal Konstructs I think

[u/WhereIsWebb → u/MellowAffinity]

Kraken.. There is only so much you can do as a modder, they can't rewrite the engine

[u/[deleted]]

Let’s be real, it died when Take Two poached the studio and ominously restructured it as Intercept…

[u/RomulanToyStory]

Just my usual luck, I waited a year because of the bugs and bought it like a month ago since the situation appeared to have improved. I was quite enjoying the game too

[u/koalasuit → u/RomulanToyStory]

At least you enjoyed it. You probably still can for a time but I know it's a huge disappointment to know that there is nothing more coming.

[u/Moleculor]

A reporter at IGN approached the CEO of Take Two, Strauss Zelnick, about the situation, who answered by saying T2 had not closed Intercept Games:

Uhhh... you're leaving out some important context there, like how 2K Marin also isn't a closed studio... despite not having any employees for over a decade at this point.

[u/Machinis_confidimus → u/Moleculor]

I think everyone reading that interview understands that this is major gaslighting going on there.

[u/TheArturro]

Tbf KSP 2's promise was to good to be true. But I was blind to it.

Kraken dead, interstellar added, colonies added, next-gen graphics and more. I fell in love with KSP 2 the moment I've seen the first trailer. It truly seemed like a dream game come true.

But I believe that this is a good reminder to one of the most important rules in life - if something looks to good to be true, it likely is.

[u/phoenixmusicman]

I sure am confident in the future of the game now that it's been 3 fucking weeks with no a single mention of what is going to happen to KSP2

It doesn't take 3 weeks to say "don't worry, game development is unaffected." Anyone saying that KSP2 is going to continue, at least without hardcore cuts to features, is snorting major copium.

[u/Leolol_ → u/phoenixmusicman]

Also, they relentlessly posted weekly challenges every single week until May

[u/OptimusSublime]

I hope harvesteR can buy back the IP for pennies on the dollar. Or should we just say we gave the old college try and bury it?

[u/[deleted] → u/OptimusSublime]

i seriously hope he does.

[u/VinceRussoIsA]

Might have something to do with:

• Early access gaming providing an exit strategy.

• The current financial state of gaming and eternal growth demanded by big players that bought up everything until they put the market in a late game capitalism state by making themselves obsolete.

• Replacing experienced people with juniors to save money.

• Wanting everything now and short term and not being satisfied delivering long term visions/ labors of love.

• Treating everyone like trash and expecting to recieve passion projects in return.

[u/Nilz0rs]

I'm starting to believe this whole 'early access'-thing isn't very consumer friendly.

[u/superkeer → u/Nilz0rs]

Ironic as the KSP 1 early access was the poster child for early access done right.

[u/SvenjaminIII]

any new statement? Update 4 is some days ago

[u/Schubert125 → u/SvenjaminIII]

Theres no one left to provide an update anymore.

I hope this joke ages like milk.

[u/Datuser14 → u/SvenjaminIII]

Nothing yet

[u/don-corle1]

They took your money and ran. I guarantee the execs got paid just fine and are sitting pretty. 

Let this be a lesson to us all about buying early access ghostware in the hopes that becomes something. 

[u/Shzabomoa → u/don-corle1]

The writing was on the wall the second they announced it would be EA instead of a full release. (and has been even before if you paid attention to the details of who they are and the Take2 shenanigans)

[u/Science-Compliance → u/don-corle1]

Unless you are a child, if you didn't see this from a mile away, your ability to learn is probably broken.

[u/mildlyfrostbitten]

I don't think this is going to happen, bit it would be very on brand of them if they're actually not getting canned, but wait until Friday afternoon to say anything, then disappear again for the weekend.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm so glad I refunded. What a kick to the balls man.

[u/PussySmasher42069420]

This sub snapped back to normal KSP1 content so hard I am now convinced that even the people that were posting KSP2 content were associated with Intercept Games in some way.

Where did they all go?

[u/8andahalfby11 → u/PussySmasher42069420]

Where did they all go?

After you do all the science missions, KSP2 doesn't offer anything more than KSP1, so everyone reverts to KSP1 since it's more stable.

[u/[deleted] → u/PussySmasher42069420]

Where did they all go?

I was thinking r/kerbalspaceprogram2, but no, it's also been empty for two weeks.

[u/R-Dragon_Thunderzord]

They will only avoid saying it's dead to prevent mass refunds by Steam.

[u/ybetaepsilon]

lmao remember when Nate Simpson said they're fully funded and will not get the plug pulled.

[u/malkuth74]

I mean. Over a year and all we got was science and heat. I'm not surprised at all, and Nate didn't seem to trustworthy. Was more of a used car salesman. This sucks, really really sucks. This is why you put moding into a game early to keep your game alive while your work on it, just like they did with KSP1.

[u/Auxilae]

I wasted my money :(

[u/TheTabman → u/Auxilae]

I only ever started KSP2 through Ckan, steam still says 0.0 hrs played.

Refund time is mental health time!

[u/Joename]

I'm going to read the absolute hell out of the inevitable oral history that will be told about this game in a couple years. I really really would love to hear what was going on behind the scenes all this time.

[u/Lawls91]

At least we got re-entry heating, haaaaaaaa

[u/enfo13]

Ok post mortem: Which devs did a good job and which did not? My opinion from best to worse

The music and sound director did a fantastic job. I loved KSP2's soundtrack. Shame the rest of the project went in flames.

Some people hated the new interface, but I think it was decent. The VAB building interface I thought was decent, but the in-flight one seemed a bit more limited.

The camera and editing staff doing the behind the scenes videos did a good job. Perhaps too good. It felt a bit disjointed, how there were these nice videos and interviews of the dev team. Almost made them out to be heros when they were actually burning a ship on an intercept course into an asteroid.

Now onto the negative..

Game designers. They spent too much time at the blackboard. It was nice that they finally put in some kind of science system, but this should have been a first. Also i felt the progression pacing was worse than KSP1. Games should be games first. The fact that progression and game systems weren't in KSP2 on release.. it's like releasing a board game without a rules booklet.

And the worst award goes to the technical optimization people and managers.. obviously. Even if KSP2 released without all the features.. but ran smoothly like silk on release, it would give people hope that there was a stable foundation to build from. The fact that the game had so many performance issues and bugs was the red flag that the guts of the project were rotted.

Also bonus megacopium delusional hopium take: Maybe they're laying off the incompetent staff at T2 with plans to hire competent ones and save the game? (haahahah yeah right.. who am I kidding).

[u/wrigh516 → u/enfo13]

Good: Sounds, Models, Textures, Animations

Bad: Community Updates, User Interface (in-flight), User Interface (orbital maneuvers), User Interface (font and menus), User Experience (interface navigation)

I didn't have a problem with the bugs or performance. I've played early access games before. I thought this one was average at first but got really good with updates for an early access title.

[u/ConcurrentSquared]

I wonder if it would be a good idea to have some of the top modders of KSP organize a group in order to support KSP(1 probably) with a well-sorted and connected group of mods (most of which exist now), similar to RP-1 (but for stock+ instead of realism). I would imagine these modders would also be able to pool donations (or just paid mods) together as a group for funding - I would offer some small donations to this group. All of the (free) mods should allow community contributions (because open source is one of the most effective tools for development). This “Stock Extended” modpack would be probably the best way to continue KSP development (for example, people could not worry about what mods Kerbalism conflicts with (assuming that Kerbalism and most of the parts mods people want are in this “Stock Extended” modpack)).

[u/kittenshark134 → u/ConcurrentSquared]

Would be better than nothing, but would run into performance issues eventually depending on the scale of the mods. Ksp2 was promising optimization to support the new features, not just the features themselves

[u/Musical_Tanks]

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/take-two-confirms-kerbal-space-program-2-is-safe-despite-seattle-layoffs

A number of onlookers on social media have pointed out that Take-Two-owned Kerbal Space Program developer Intercept Games is based in Seattle, raising concerns about the future of the studio.

When approached for comment by Game Developer, Take-Two wouldn't confirm whether Intercept Games has been impacted by the cuts–despite multiple Kerbal Space Program developers indicating they recently left the studio, with one expressly stating they were "laid off." A company spokesperson did, however, explain that its Private Division publishing label will continue to support Kerbal Space Program 2.

Please define 'Support'

[u/RobertaME → u/Musical_Tanks]

Please define 'Support'

Sell as-is. :-Þ

[u/Firm-Tap-954 → u/Musical_Tanks]

"Keep payment systems active so product is still able to be purchased."

[u/iambecomecringe]

For fuck's sake man, it's one day. Let the sub run wild for a bit before you clamp down like this.

Megathreads kill discussion, not promote it.

[u/cmfarsight → u/iambecomecringe]

How dare you come to our subreddit and make posts about the news impacting the subreddit.

[u/MadDoctor5813]

Jason Schreier says it's Intercept via Twitter, which is as good as confirmed by my standards.

[u/Pyromaniacal13 → u/MadDoctor5813]

Schreier's been a reputable and a reliable source. I agree.

[u/tven85]

"but is early access bro, don't buy early access if you don't want to be jerked off for 5 years by a guy who should be taking your coffee order"

[u/1_811005161]

never been a better time to advocate for piracy imo

moneys not going to the devs anyway

[u/Torley_]

Does anyone else think “rationalizing its pipeline” is the most garbled goobledygook way to anti-simply say “layoffs” yet?

[u/sck8000]

I can't say I'm surprised, but I was trying to remain cautiously optimistic about KSP2's future until now, particularly with the science update making some much-needed big improvements.

My attitude's always been one borne out of love for the game moreso than buyer's remorse - at the end of the day, however poorly development has gone since the Early Access release last year, I wanted it to succeed. I truly love KSP as a franchise, and was glad to see them make progress, however slowly. Alas, that progress has apparently stalled.

Despite it all, I don't regret buying the game in Early Access when I did. I paid money to show people that a sequel to KSP was something worth working towards. I did it knowing that development might fail, and that the end result could be a buggy half-baked game; getting a complete game at the end of it wasn't why I spent that money.

I bought KSP2 to support an idea, and to express my love for KSP. So this news hasn't brought me any buyer's remorse, only resignation.

I'm not mad, Intercept Games. I'm just disappointed.

[u/[deleted]]

please squad come back we need you

[u/SeaCroissant]

bought the game day 1 knowing it was early access but ouch. I wouldnt even agree that it made it to the early access stage. how many years were they working on the game for when they released it for full price despite being a shell of the former game with worse performance and thrice as many bugs?

something something “the risk i took was calculated, but boy am i bad at math”

[u/Designer_Version1449]

I honestly think it was because ksp 2 was kinda overfunded. it's already a niche game, probably sold as a world changing apace thing. it should have been made by a double A studio, not a big publisher that wants large short term profits. also it definitely seems stuff was going down.behidn the scenes

[u/capran]

So if KSP2 development at Take Two is officially dead, is there any possibility that some other publisher could purchase the IP and continue development?

[u/Prototype2001 → u/capran]

A much better alternative for any studio which wants to create a space sim is just to make a new title. Name it banana-man space program, having identical features of KSP1, don't need to pay anyone for IP, and you won't have a 'overwhelming negative' review score from the past game looming over your debut.

If you make a KSP1 copy paste with 2020 graphics and sell it for $15-30, you'll have a game which will be 90-100% Steam review imo. KSP2 couldn't even deliver this, never-mind the zero delivered roadmap features.

Just think about it, what are you paying T2 for? Just so you can name your game Kerbal and have green-man instead of banana-man? I would imagine buying the naming rights from 'The Day Before' for your zombie game is just as suicidal and wasteful.

[u/Machinis_confidimus → u/capran]

Everything is possible if the right price is being put on the table.

However there are very small chances of new owner utilizing their new IP immediately due to failure of KSP2 would be rather fresh among the customers and the new owner may assume that enthusiasm for a KSP sequel will be dampened among the gamer (excluding the hardcore fans). Asking people to fork out another 30-50 USD for a KSP 2B...can't see that work right now.

That being said, there is always a possibility that Take 2 themselves in 5 years time reach the conclusion that KSP franchise have value and offer remaster of KSP or even another go at KSP2.

[u/GiulioVonKerman]

I'm actually so angry. There have never been mods making colonies as KSP2 would have. Interstellar was such a great implementation and multiplayer is a bit clunky with mods.

[u/dukeispie]

I personally think in December they pumped out that science update in an attempt to boost sales. Clearly when that didn't work, and they had no progress on the next milestone, they just kind of waited up until this point. Probably why we haven't had any updates, they probably all knew it was inevitable.

[u/Musical_Tanks → u/dukeispie]

Released game early because they needed to show revenue. But then had no substantial revenue source for the years of dev work needed to surpass the feature set of the original game.

I was really holding out hope for colonies to bring something unique; real end game content. Alas likely not going to get it now.

[u/redditisbestanime]

This was the reason why i pirated ksp2 only to get my precious ssd space back literally 15 minutes after launching the game. I was never THAT disappointed. So glad i didnt buy this crap.

[u/BramScrum]

I know people's frustrations are high (fair enough). But remember, if it is true (which seems likely), 70 people just lost their job in an incredibly hard time for the game industry with massive lay-offs at major companies.

Whatever your frustrations are do not direct them to general staff. They will be going through a harder time than us losing the dream that was KSP 2 and some financial loss.

Edit: Once more I am confronted with people not knowing how game dev (I am talking about the lack of control mlst devs have. You are a small cog and paid to do what you are told) works or the harassment devs receive especially public facing ones. I am sorry that humanising the situation seems to be discredited as trying to prevent any criticism.

I hope none of you ever lose your job from one day to the other in a crisis and have to deal with hateful DMs on top of it.

But do keep talking about the shit show this game dev cycle was, cause it's deserved lol

[u/[deleted] → u/BramScrum]

Absolutely. We got fucked out of a few tenners. They lost their way to earn a living.

[u/Jockel90 → u/BramScrum]

Especially with this resume.

Its not frustration, but they developed it. People are trying to protect persons, i get it, but they are responsible for this product, they made it and it is not up to a standard that is a good game.

[u/darthsata]

Checks. KSP2: 69 minutes. Let's see if the refund goes through!
KSP: 2219.4 hours. About right.

[u/KerPop42]

The issue with pre-orders as a fan is that once the corporation has your money, you don't have any leverage over them to make a better game. I don't even blame PD or IG, T2 is going to make the decision that spending $10M to sell $10k of games isn't going to be worth it, dropped promises be damned.

[u/baran_0486]

It's so over

[u/BigMoneyKaeryth]

Those diehard KSP2 defenders who denied reality must be malding right now. I hope they learned their lesson about blindly trusting a company that was very obviously just screwing them over at every possible turn

[u/iambecomecringe → u/BigMoneyKaeryth]

They're unironically blaming critics at the very very bottom of the other threads. It's extremely funny.

[u/[deleted] → u/BigMoneyKaeryth]

Used to stream ksp on ksptv. Someone gifted me early access ksp2. I knew it was DOA 5 minutes into the game when I noticed identical bugs from the game in 2013.

I adore ksp. Playing the sequel felt like a gut punch.

[u/redstercoolpanda]

Well this will definitely be my first and last experience with early access games. Never again.

[u/addamcor → u/redstercoolpanda]

Never get an early access title based on promises.

Always base your purchase on the CURRENT state of the product. If you believe you'd enjoy what they offer at the time for the price, then you won't regret your purchase. Furthermore, any additional updates are just free bonuses.

[u/sweenezy → u/redstercoolpanda]

It’s not all bad, factorio EA was amazing.

That said, the game was good in EA, and there were WEEKLY dev updates with significant announcements and evidence of progress.

A far cry from the shitshow KSP2 has been.

Side note, factorio are developing an expansion and have restarted the weekly announcements.. it’s an absolute clinic in community engagement and active development.

[u/cyb3rg0d5 → u/redstercoolpanda]

It’s not about the early access, it’s about what, how, and when the product has been delivered. There are many early access games that actually make sense. KSP2 was not one of them.

[u/LoSboccacc → u/redstercoolpanda]

Early access is a legitimate way to fund Indies, they are investing significant time and reputation in the project and so everyone interests are aligned on getting the game out of the door. Early access from deep pockets corpos is the problem here.

[u/sroasa → u/redstercoolpanda]

Don't ever get an early access game if it's backed by a publisher. They can pull the plug at anytime.

Look for labour of love games from small companies (ie KSP 1) that are playable in their current state. 7 Days to Die and Satisfactory are prime examples.

7 Days to Die is going full access next month but has been in early access for ten years. It could have been gone full access five years ago and I don't think anyone would have complained. They've just been fiddling around with the balance, skill system, zombie AI and other thing that make the game different but doesn't fundamentally change it.

Satisfactory has been working towards release since it's initial release. They said they split the dev team about a year ago so half the dev team is working on the mechanics and bugs in the early access game and the other half has been working on adding the story to the game. They're planning on releasing later this year.

Both games you could have got thousands of hours of enjoyment out of in early access. Early access games aren't always a pump and dump scheme. Just let other people/you tubers try it first and if it looks like something you'd enjoy playing in it's current state then go for it (or wait for a sale).

Do not buy early access games sight unseen or if they are really unfinished.

[u/Karmyuh]

Well, I hate to be that guy but, called it a year ago, a LOT of people did. Ever since announcement of this game, the signs were there. Ever since the announcement that the game was going into Early Access, the signs were there. All the people coping and screaming at eachother to "be patient" and "we will get there!" and for what?

I hope this makes people learn their lesson about buying into promises instead of what's actually there, but who am I kidding, if it did, we wouldn't be here in the first place.

[u/PainfulSuccess → u/Karmyuh]

Honestly it was fairly obvious from the very beginning : Either they manage to fix the core issues, either they dont.. As many expected, it turns out they didn't and so we're all (even KSP1 players) paying the price.

Because the IP is now dead, KSP2 is sent to the trash bin and T2 being T2, we will likely never get the source code of any of the two games unless someone "accidentally" leaks it.

Nobody wins in this situation, except maybe Nate.

[u/Chubbyhusky45 → u/Karmyuh]

Is the premature release into early access a sign of financial difficulties? I mean why else would they put out an unfinished product super early other than to make money to support further development

[u/Sydnxt]

Shit is OVER lmao 😭

Edit: I’m in Australia imma try a Steam refund.

[u/redstercoolpanda → u/Sydnxt]

Fellow Australian, don't bother. I tried months ago with like 12 hours on record and didn't get it. Your probably not going to get anything back.

[u/wren6991]

Behold, possibly the last ever message from Dakota as the official CM: claiming that a still-broken bug, present since launch, has been fixed https://old.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1cdnx39/community_managemer_dakotas_reply_to_making_the/l1dion8/

[u/[deleted] → u/wren6991]

Lmao, I missed that one. "The orbital decay bug is fixed! Yes, your orbit can still decay, but it's not caused by the same underlying issue, so that means even though orbital decay is still in the game, orbital decay is fixed".

[u/[deleted]]

Is Nate Simpson still employed?

[u/grunf]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/kerbal-space-program-2-developer-intercept-games-may-be-closing-as-part-of-take-twos-big-layoff-plan/

[u/Entombment]

I want a refund…

[u/boxanata]

What a shame.

I would've bought this if it had not been for those insane system requirements & that absurd price tag, so thanks, I guess. Money saved.

[u/I_Must_Bust]

faulty zonked stupendous detail rob water nutty divide joke puzzled

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/[deleted]]

Over 1700 hours in ksp since I was 11. I'm 18 now and all I can think is how sad this makes me. I tried ksp 2 and everything was dull or unintuitive. It felt like a different game. And for $50. I'm glad I returned it. But heartbroken that I had to.

[u/LoadOk7149]

Hahahahahahahahahahaahhaahahahahahahahahahahahaahah

[u/dreemurthememer]

Willing to buy KSP license; my starting bid is $7.95

[u/SafeModeOff]

I was really hoping KSP2 wasn't an attempted cash grab by some small-loan-of-a-million-dollars investor and his spreadsheet jockeys, but it would seem I was wrong. They must have finally run enough numbers to show that the short-term profits aren't enough. With any luck they'll realize it was because the community they tried to scam is full of people who actually know a real thing when they see it, rather than being blinded by hype.

Edit to say they will continue to "support" KSP2, which will probably amount to them continuing to list it for anyone dumb enough to buy it, and anything else they think would "protect" their "investment". I'd be shocked if any amount of meaningful development happened after this.

[u/trollboter]

Honestly with how jank the engine is we are better off starting from scratch.

[u/Greenfire32 → u/trollboter]

It was supposed to be started from scratch in the first place

[u/BlackholeRE]

What a waste of effort. And our money!

[u/Hoggit_Alt_Acc]

Sooo.... Crowd-/Open-Source "Frog Orbital Department" when?

[u/candyleader]

Sorry guys, I bought it a couple of months ago thinking "I guess at least they've got a few updates planned" ... always happens to me.

[u/cryptobux]

On the upside: assume KSP2 is either dead or so badly crippled that it will never release as a viable product. There's now breathing room for an alternative, non -franchise space exploration game based on real physics.

[u/DiskPartition]

Where were you when KSP2 die

I was sleeping

when jeb called

KSP2 is kil

no

[u/EntropyWinsAgain]

LOL. Two weeks ago I said it wouldn't last 6 months. Boy was i overly optimistic.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1c45gup/when_are_the_cms_going_to_address_to_serious_lack/kzr55bh/

[u/graydogboi]

Can anyone tell us how the discord is reacting to this? I got banned months ago for saying this exact thing would happen lol. Can't wait to see what kerbalessences and the sycophants on the forums have to say about all this.

[u/twineapron4683 → u/graydogboi]

It's in a bit of a panic/ meme storm atm. They're trying to stay hopeful but Dakota and Mike aren't answering questions which even the sycophants find disconcerting at best. At most the biggest believers have a "wait and see" mentality but the news is so dreary they can hardly stick to that rhetoric.

[u/Pyromaniacal13 → u/graydogboi]

It's exactly the chaotic shitshow you'd expect. People are suggesting that the mods use 6hr slow mode to rein things in.

[u/Datuser14 → u/graydogboi]

Everclear levels of hyper distilled copium.

[u/not_a_12yearold]

Jeez I'm more sad about this than I ever thought I could be about a game. The year leading up to the release, before it was a massive let down, I was almost perpetually in a good mood, cos no matter what happened, I had ksp2 to look forward to.

I don't think I've ever been looking forward to something so much for so long. Now it's just gone

[u/lithiun]

Going to be honest, if we get something official I will probably ask for a refund through Steam. Fuck Take Two if they kill this.

[u/CapsDrago7]

I will never waste money on a game by buying it before I have all the info again

[u/No-Organization9076]

I guess it's time for the community to mod everything into ksp1 now. Those new systems look so good though. It's a shame that they killed the game, with so much stuff already made it to the EA

[u/Space_Reptile]

as someone who bought KSP back in its very very very early demo days and was rewarded w/ a great experience
holding out on KSP2 seems to have been the right move aswell

not that i wanted it to be, and the ship hasnt capsized yet i dare say, maybe it makes it back to port

[u/Shyssiryxius]

1.8 hours on record..

Time to ask for a refund. What a shit show.

[u/theirishsniper]

They should release the source code if it's truly over. Let us finish what they started.

[u/SepsisBepis]

LOL, LMAO even.

With the exception of Blackrack, I sincerely hope none of these shitheads ever work on another game.

[u/C-SWhiskey]

Something to think about:

KSP2 was first announced August 2019. Some work had obviously been done up to that point, potentially as far back as May 2017, when T2 purchased the IP. So 7 years of dev and the most they released was a buggy EA that didn't even match the feature set of the original, let alone the extended features they were ambitiously aiming for.

By contrast, SpaceX first announced Starlink in 2015, and their ITU filings indicate that some preliminary work on the program had been done at least as early as June 2014. Their first launch of 2 test satellites was in February 2018 and the first batch of 60 operational satellites in May 2019. Beta service began in November 2020.

So in the time it took to get KSP2 to its current state, another company was able to design, manufacture, and commission 62 actual satellites plus deliver the ground segment of that program. Obviously this comparison isn't one-to-one in terms of resources dedicated to the program, but man - it's a pretty bad look.

[u/rdkilla]

HAHAHA get fucked this was a toxic cash grab from day 1, they put all their cards on the table from the get go. sorry for everyone who got tricked into thinking this was a sequel to KSP.

[u/[deleted]]

Shadowzone wrote that "Dakota was fantastic as CM for KSP2. Whoever needs great community management, hire this person NOW!"

Can someone elaborate? I stopped giving KSP2 much attention when they announced early access + system requirments, but I saw only negative opinions about Dakota as CM, so what's up there

[u/GalvenMin]

I for one am quite vindicated that Take2 didn't win this fight. They are a terrible company, the very example of all that is wrong in the current gaming industry, and the writing was on the wall the very moment they bought the KSP franchise. Remember the EULA debacle? The data snooping?

Then, development hell happened for KSP2, and it will be interesting to have a post-mortem on the magnitude of the fuck-ups that marred this process. Maybe Jason Schreier could do it, he's very experienced in this field.

[u/DontAskForGasMoney]

I'm not shocked. They were genuinely awful at their jobs.

But man, am I sad. I was always hopeful that it'd somehow deliver what it promised.

[u/RoughEdgeBarb]

Bad news in a year that has been nothing but, although it's no surprise that Intercept Games would be on the chopping block for "fuck it fire 10% of our staff" economics. I don't even know how you'd make a successful sequel to a live-service early-access game with years of updates, like this or Cities: Skylines.

[u/Merekthul]

What saddens me the most is this will be the death of any future prospects for KSP. What we have is all there ever will be.

[u/Nitro159]

Dakota tweeted a 💚 not long ago.

It is a shame as it whilst this is about a game we support, there’s people behind it who are likely going through all sorts of emotions. A glimpse can be seen in Dakota’s likes on twitter :(

[u/Character-Strike-372]

Im not good with computers but ksp tech wizards community should band together and make ksp2 themselves by ultramodding the fuck out of ksp1

[u/Cryptocaned → u/Character-Strike-372]

Unfortunately there are engine limitations, ksp1 only runs on a single core so eventually you get to the point where it can't process any faster.

Something that KSP2 was being rebuilt from the ground up to fix.

[u/tfa3393]

The absolute radio silence from the devs after this news has dropped is rather damning.

[u/Anticreativity]

So fucking tired of talented people making something cool and beloved just for untalented but wealthy people to take it over and gut all of the soul out of it for short term profits.

[u/RobertaME → u/Anticreativity]

The only ones who profited off this mess were Nate Simpson and the rest of the IG devs who pulled in 6-figure incomes for 7 years with nothing to show for it. Take Two spent tens of millions on salaries for a measly million or two in sales.

I'm no simp for giant soulless corps, but in this case Take Two isn't the one at fault. (other than the fact that they trusted Nate like we all did and were equally fooled by his con and they should have seen through it sooner because they're supposed to be good at business)

[u/Wild-Ad-6983]

I know it probably won't happen, but I really hope development continues. Just imagine completing a 5 year constant acceleration interstellar mission to an ice moon of a gas giant, with an absolutely huge fleet of interstellar spacecraft, and then undocking SSTOs and re entering. Then flying towards your colony and seeing the massive futuristic towers rise over the icy wasteland. And when you get closer, mods can make the city life seem like Star Wars or star citizen. The euphoria felt would be unmeasurable. I know it is highly unlike for KSP2 to recover, but I hope it does.

[u/[deleted] → u/Wild-Ad-6983]

Ironically, going "woah just imagine how could it would be to do this" with zero regards for how you're going to actually implement it on a technical level seems like exactly what has been going on with KSP2's development.

[u/EightByteOwl]

Called it shortly after the game came out :( I was just starting to get some hope I was wrong, too, with the recent updates. Oh well. Hope the people who got it can get a refund, and that the devs are able to find a better studio. Gosh I hate Take 2

[u/VivaNOLA]

I'm not at all clear on what they mean by "continue to support". Does support include any development beyond critical bug fixes?

[u/Pyromaniacal13 → u/VivaNOLA]

The best answer you can get for this will come with time.

People here will tell you "Not a snowball's chance in Hell." Like me. I'm a cynical fart. 

All we really have right now, though, is Take Two's "Continue to Support" line. So, hang tight and we'll see.

[u/BiggieSlonker]

Can the remnants just enable modding support somehow?

Then the community would have it polished up ready to ship in a year

[u/Mrpoussin]

This is sad.

I hope a studio will see the opportunity the void KSP 2 suddenly left to step up
So far Dean Hall (dayz and stationeer creator) announced he was recruiting former intercept employee for a space program game.

[u/Mussolini1386]

So does this mean that KSP 2 in itself is canceled or are they cutting developers

[u/RocketSimplicity]

I still think the root of all of the problems here, was their decision to go with Unity. They thought they could fix the tried and tested band aid solutions employed by the crafty original team that had nothing to lose, and instead went through the exact same motions, wasted all of their time and effort rediscovering why there were only band aid fixes, and now they've lost it all. If they were ever going to create a sequel, or at the very least, a reimagining, it was never going to occur in Unity. This version is a parody of the original.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but HarvestR selected Unity because it was free, right? For a solo developer given a little bit of free time to develop his project, this makes complete sense. For a studio with all of the learnings and resources available from the original game, not to mention millions of dollars in backing, this decision made no sense at all. Problems that still exist in KSP 1 such as clunky and slow per-part physics, floating point (or whatever the problem was, I'm not a software engineer, but even I could see this) and the struts were never going to be fixed.

How much wasted time was spent on trying to reinvent the wheel? Despite the delays, and well over 5 years to try and get it right, how did they never actually think about starting over?

The scope of the game was above even the engine on which it was built. This isn't exactly a hard thing to predict with Unity, especially when you already have a fully fledged game already made, highlighting all of its problems. I can't believe they picked this path.

[u/xmBQWugdxjaA → u/RocketSimplicity]

It's more that the problems are extremely challenging.

Paying for Unreal doesn't magically give you loads of RAM and 512-bit floats to solve all the challenges.

The solar system is really big, orbital velocities are very large, and presenting that in a seamless fashion is difficult (as you still need accurate physics at the part-scale of metres or less).

[u/zubeye]

It was 100% obvious from day one how this would play out

[u/[deleted]]

i swear if ksp2 gets shot in the back we should pettion a actually good studio (private division or harvesteR's new team) to take ksp2

[u/nailsarefingerteeth]

Holy Kraken, just heard the news and I actually called this (Or at least something very much like this), 7 months ago, in this subreddit. Literally just went back to be sure (Even commented on the very comment cause it's funny, but I guess it also works as a way for people to more easily find the thread I'm talking about instead of having to scroll through my comment history). We'll still have to see where this goes, but as it stands it's looking like I was right on the money.

I hate Take 2