In a fairly exciting case of two major industry stories meeting in the middle, former members of downfallen indie publisher Annapurna Interactive have reportedly joined forces to take control of several game projects previously published by Take-Two Interactive's label Private Division, which has itself been sold off amid layoffs. The game projects in question include the Kerbal Space Program series and an unannounced project from Pokémon developer Game Freak.
]]>Stationeers and Icarus developers RocketWerkz are making a spiritual successor to beloved space sim Kerbal Space Program, which is currently titled "Kitten Space Agency" in a flagrant display of adherence to wholesome internet trends. It's based on an actual Kerbal Space Program 2 pitch the studio threw at Take-Two subsidiary Private Division back in the day. RocketWerkz CEO and original DayZ creator Dean Hall has hired several former KSP and KSP2 developers to work on the game, and is describing it on social media as a "KSP killer".
]]>A producer on Kerbal Space Program 2 has confirmed that those working on the space flight sim are being laid off en masse. We already knew that the developers at Intercept Games would be losing their jobs thanks to a closure announcement from Washington State. Until remarks from Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive, muddied the waters. Zelnick refused to acknowledge that the studio was being closed when asked by a reporter, even going so far as to claim the opposite. "We didn't shutter those studios," he told IGN. But it seems clear from one producer's testimony that Zelnick's remarks are inaccurate.
]]>Last month, GTA 6 publishers Take-Two Interactive announced plans to "rationalize" their "pipeline" by laying off five per cent of their workforce - around 580 people - and cancelling various games. As part of that, they're reportedly now doing away with 70 positions at their Seattle offices - Seattle being the home of the Take-Two-owned Intercept Games, the current developers of space sim Kerbal Space Program 2.
]]>You don't need a degree in rocket science to know that Kerbal Space Program 2 didn't exactly launch in the best of states last month. From its astronomically high PC requirements to the numerous bugs identified in our early access review, it's been a rough ride for developers Intercept Games, but hope is on the horizon. In a new development update, creative director Nate Simpson has announced the first major patch will be arriving on Thursday March 16th, primarily focusing on "performance improvements and bug squashing".
]]>Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two have confirmed layoffs at the company, primarily affecting their corporate and publishing efforts. The news originally spilled yesterday via a Tweet from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who claimed the cuts would impact Private Division - the publishing label behind The Outer Worlds and Kerbal Space Program 2 - and other unnamed divisions. Take-Two later confirmed the news in a statement to PC Gamer, saying the layoffs would affect “corporate operations and label publishing.” Take-Two haven’t clarified the number of employees that have been laid off, but the cuts to development teams would be “minimal.”
]]>I know we’ve been bleating on about PC system requirements lately, but the spec demands of Kerbal Space Program 2 also demand a special, visibly uncomfortable mention. This game, fresh into early access and the sequel to one that needed a mere 512GB of VRAM, lists the formidable RTX 3080 among its recommended hardware. That’s a £600-plus graphics card, and for the bare minimum of Low quality at 1080p? That’ll be either a GTX 1070 Ti or a Radeon RX 5600 XT.
Consternation at the star-high starting specs prompted Private Division community lead Michael Loreno to pen a forum post explaining the requirements, suggesting they were subject to change as further optimisations are added and that "the game is certainly playable on machines below our min spec." Sadly, I’ve been finding that several of the most-used GPUs among Steam users – including the immensely popular GTX 1060 – are likely to face serious performance woes in KSP2’s current state.
]]>Oh no, poor Kerbal Space Program 2. The extremely anticipated sequel to everyone’s favourite rocket-building space exploration game is a hot mess. A list of bugs longer than a Saturn V reads like a terrible medical diagnosis: quivering periapsis, unpredictable methane leakage, late-stage separation anxiety, loose payloads, non-stop burning, and sensitive nodes.
The developers, smiling bravely in circumstances presumably beyond their control, describe the launch as like dropping a kid off for their first day at school. Well the kid forgot their lunchbox, their uniform, their books and their pencil case. They showed up at the wrong school, on a Saturday during half-term. If you were stranded on a desert island and had to recreate Kerbal Space Program from memory using nothing but coconuts and string, it would look something like Kerbal Space Program 2. The game is nowhere approaching finished, it barely resembles the promotional videos, and it isn’t ready, even by Early Access standards.
]]>When will multiplayer arrive in Kerbal Space Program 2? Kerbal Space Program 2 has now launched into Early Access on PC, but there's a way to go before this sequel to 2015's hit space flight simulator will gain all of its eventual features. Flagship new features like multiplayer aren't in the game just yet, but thanks to a roadmap provided by the dev team, we have an idea of what's in the game right now and what's still to come.
]]>What do you need to know when starting Kerbal Space Program 2? Kerbal Space Program 2, the sequel to 2015's smash hit space flight simulator, has just launched into Early Access. Whether you're a long-time Kerbal Space Program fan curious about what the sequel has to offer or an absolute beginner to the series, there are a few things that are worth knowing right from the start as you embark on your KSP2 journey.
]]>How do you get to space in Kerbal Space Program 2? In Kerbal Space Program 2, almost any combination of components counts as a rocket, inasmuch as the game will totally let you take it out onto the launchpad to see what happens. However, failure is not only an ever-present possibility in KSP2, it's actually rather likely, especially when you're new to the game.
]]>Space exploration sim Kerbal Space Program 2 is crash landing into early access on February 24th, just under a week, and developers Intercept Games are celebrating with a new gameplay trailer. The trailer begins at the Kerbal Space Center, on the planet Kerbin, as the cute little aliens attempt to build a working spaceship and rocket off into the Kerbolar System. Genuine question: does this make the green minions Kerbites, Kerbals, or Kermen?
]]>Happy New Year, folks! Crikey, there are a lot of games coming out this year, aren't there? When I first asked the team to put together their most anticipated games for 2023, I was thinking we'd have a reasonably sensible number of things we were all looking forward to, you know, somewhere in the region of the 43 games we highlighted at the start of 2022. Very quickly, though, it became apparent that, actually, there are simply loads of games the RPS Treehouse is personally excited about this year, and cor, it would be rude not to include every last one of them. I'll be upfront: there are a fair number of TBA games on here that probably aren't going to come out in 2023, but as ever, we remain hopeful and optimistic all the same. So let's dive in.
]]>Space flight simulation sequel Kerbal Space Program 2 will finally get to take off in early access on PC on February 24th, 2023, devs Intercept Games have announced. The early access version of the game will allow you to fully travel around the Kerbolar system - can’t quite believe I typed that - which has been given a major overhaul since the first game. There’ll also be more than 350 new parts to build your spacecraft with. You can watch a lengthy chat with the Kerbal team about their early access mission below.
]]>This is delightful. Most games struggle through the tangled thorns of PR, marketing, and that one dude who spots errors from seven miles away, before getting a single screenshot to you. But this little glimpse into Kerbal Space Program 2’s progress is via their show and tell sessions on the official forums, where the team gathers up what they’ve been working on and shares it with the community. In April and May, the clouds got fluffier, the terrain more specular, and the Mun really embraced its impact craters.
]]>Space knower and Iain M. Banks reader (check his bookshelf) Scott Manley says Kerbal Space Program is a "gateway drug to physics", which I sort of agree with. For me, the rocket sim was an education in things like "apoapsis" and "periapsis", and I felt slightly more informed for having played it. But it’s not a good teacher, really, which is one of the things Kerbal Space Program 2 hopes to remedy. The game will still be tough, the processes still hugely complex, but you’ll hopefully be able to play it without needing to consult a smart friend or a YouTube playlist.
]]>T-minus another year 'til takeoff, astronauts. Spacefaring simulator sequel Kerbal Space Program 2 has delayed its launch once more, and now won't shoot for the starts until 2022 at the earliest. It's the third time the game's been delayed, but the devs reckon they'll need the extra time to make sure their cobbled-together starship is built for the long haul.
]]>Catastrophic space flight sim Kerbal Space Program 2 has been in the lab for some time. Earlier this year Last month (wow, time's a thing), it announced a delay until autumn of 2021 for the spaceflight sequel, a lengthy setback even by the standards of other coronavirus delays.
Based on a new report by Bloomberg, it seems the extra year and a half may have less to do with the pandemic and a lot more to do with a big studio shakeup orchestrated by KSP2's owners Take-Two Interactive that's ultimately resulted in Star Theory shutting down.
]]>Unfortunately, yet another game is being delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This time it's space flight sim Kerbal Space Program 2 that's been grounded - now we'll be waiting until autumn next year to launch those little green men into the great beyond.
"With everything going on in the world today due to the Covid-19 outbreak, we're facing many unique challenges that require more time to safely iterate, create, test, and make KSP2 as great as it can be," yesterday's statement said.
]]>Luckily for Kerbal Space Program 2, there’s no equivalent of a Cold War enemy in games to force it to take dangerous risks with its development process. As such, they can take their time with the space-race sequel, keeping the Kerbals safe for at least another year. The launch of KSP2 has received a “no go” order, leaving it grounded until after April 2020.
]]>Kerbal Space Program 2 was not an announcement that we expected to appear with this year's Gamescom Opening Night Live event, but it's certainly one that caught everyone's eye. This sequel to the much-beloved spaceflight simulator looks to improve upon its predecessor in a great many ways, from multiplayer support to colonisation and interstellar travel.
We'll go through everything we know about the upcoming Kerbal Space Program 2 below, from release date information to in-depth trailer analysis, confirmed new gameplay features, and more.
]]>A sequel is coming for silly-yet-serious space build-o-exploration sim Kerbal Space Program. Blasting off next year, Kerbal Space Program 2 will add fancy and far-flung features including interstellar travel, space colonies, and official multiplayer support. This announcement seemed sudden to me until I remembered that the first game officially left early access in 2015. Four years ago! Goodness me. Come watch the sequel's announcement trailer below.
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