A former Intercept Games developer recently confirmed on Twitter that he had been laid off by the studio, while others – such as associate producer Grace Tuohey-Kay and community manager Dakota Callahan – have listed themselves as being “open for work” on their LinkedIn profiles.

Though Intercept Games or publisher Private Division, which is a Take-Two Interactive label, have yet to officially announce layoffs or closures at the studio, a Washington State WARN Notice (which companies are legally required to issue 60 days prior to initiating mass layoffs, as per the WARN Act) confirms that Take-Two has closed a studio based in Seattle, cutting 70 jobs. Intercept Games is the only studio owned by the company across all of its publishing labels that is based in Seattle.

Intercept Games was officially established in 2020 to work on Kerbal Space Program 2, with publisher Private Division deciding to move development away from Star Theory Games, the team that developed the original Kerbal Space Program. Shortly after Intercept Games was officially unveiled, however, reports claimed that Take-Two Interactive had poached a large number of staff from Star Theory Games, causing the studio’s shuttering amidst ongoing development on Kerbal Space Program 2.

Kerbal Space Program 2 itself was announced back in 2019, following which the game would go on to be delayed numerous times. It finally launched for PC in February last year, though only as an early access title, and has seen divided reception from players since then. Currently, it sits at a Mixed user score rating on Steam, with only 57 percent of nearly 18,000 user reviews on the platform to date being positive.

What Intercept Games’ reported closure will mean for Kerbal Space Program 2 remains to be seen. Stay tuned for official information from Take-Two Interactive.

Creative director Nate Simpson took to the game’s official forums to talk about the update, stating that the team has been making “good headway on performance improvement and bug squashing.”

While not bringing in any new features, the update is instead focused on bringing in a host of optimisations and bug fixes to Kerbal Space Program 2, fixing major issues like debris not being targetable, game-breaking bugs, and optimising loading times and general performance.

“QA is thoroughly testing the build right now, and as soon as they give us a thumbs-up, we’ll release it,” Simpson said. “Provided QA does not uncover any show-stopping bugs over the next few days, that date should hold. If they do run into something unexpected that needs to be fixed, that date will slip.”

This essentially means that, unless a major problem is found with the update, it is on track to be released on Thursday.

Kerbal Space Program 2 is currently available on PC. The game also has a roadmap, with several features like tech tree progression and multiplayer slated for release later.

The trailer also tries to explain the general look in Kerbal Space Program 2, featuring several space flight-related accidents, frustrated Kerbonauts, and scientists trying to iterate and reiterate on designs that might hopefully help them complete their mission.

The trailer also shows off some of the features that aren’t yet available in Kerbal Space Program 2, such as the ability to play multiplayer, establish colonies, or engage in interstellar travel.

Kerbal Space Program 2 has just launched as an early access title for PC. While the game doesn’t yet have a solid full release date, its predecessor’s time in early access would indicate that it could be a few years before we see a final release.

The early access version of Kerbal Space Program 2 only has its sandbox mode available, with progression in the form of science gathering and tech trees coming in later updates.

While the trailer doesn’t show any gameplay, it does give us a good idea of the laws of physics the game will follow. The trailer gives us a quick run down on why rockets launch vertically, and how they can then be maneuvered into orbit.

Kerbal Space Program 2 will be released on PC as an early access release. Slated for launch on February 24, the game is set to introduce a host of new features to differentiate itself from its predecessor, including multiplayer gameplay down the line.

Kerbal Space Program 2 will put players in charge of the space exploration program on planet Kerbal. As the leader of the program, the player has to design aircrafts and spaceships to send them out into space for various missions, either for the sake of progression or just to test out a new idea.

Creative director Nate Simpson recently brought the simulation title to the PC Gaming Show 2023 Preview for a new gameplay presentation. In addition to providing details on what the game’s early access launch will entail, Simpson also spoke about its new tutorializaton features, gameplay improvements over its predecessor, and a new multiplayer component, which will arrive some time after the game’s early access launch.

Multiplayer will introduce the concept of agencies, and can be played both cooperatively and competitively. Players can choose to work together for a single agency and contribute together towards the same space program, or they can choose to compete against each other by working for different agencies in the space race. You can get more details below.

Kerbal Space Program 2 launches in early access for PC on February 24, 2023.

It’s been announced that Kerbal Space Program 2 will launch in early access for PC via Steam on February 24, 2023. There’s still no word on when the game’s console versions will launch. On Steam, the early access version will retail for $49.99, and Intercept Games has given no date for how long it will remain in early access. The developer has simply said the game won’t launch in full until it feels that “the game and its full feature set are at our desired level of quality.”

You can get more details on what to expect from the early access version and how Intercept Games plans on supporting it and building upon it in the video below.

In a recently released video, the game’s creative director Nate Simpson announced that Kerbal Space Program has been delayed again. It is now scheduled to launch for PC sometime in early 2023, while the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and Xbox One versions will arrive later. Later when? There’s no word on that just yet.

Simpson explains that the reason for the delay, simply enough, is the development team at Intercept Games requiring more time to fulfil its ambitions for the game, polishing it as much as it needs to, and ensuring that it runs well on all platforms.

“We’re creating a game of immense technological complexity,” Simpson says (transcribed by Gematsu). “And we’ve assembled a team of passionate, talented people to achieve that goal. But we’ve also set ourselves a very high bar of quality.

“The game has to be performant across a wide range of machines. The graphics have to be peerless. The universe has to be rich and interesting to explore.”

Hopefully for fans looking forward to the game, this will be the final delay for the game- though at the same time, if it needs more time in the oven, it’s best that it gets that time.

Private Division, the publisher behind the upcoming Kerbal Space Program 2, has released a new developer video showing new features that are designed to make Kerbal Space Program 2 a bit easier to get into for beginners.

Developer Intercept Games has said that one of its highest priorities is making onboarding and approachability enhancements, including a new tutorial and various UI/UX improvements, so the title can be enjoyed by more players.

Kerbal Space Program is notorious for its learning curve. “Playing KSP1 sometimes feels like you’re trying to climb Mount Everest in your street clothes,” one developer says. “KSP2 sort of adds Sherpas and base camps. It’s still the same tall mountain, it’s still an insane challenge, but we’re least equipping you for success.”

Kerbal Space Program 2 was delayed until sometime in 2022 last November to focus on improving the game’s quality. You can watch the video detailing Kerbal Space Program 2’s improvements here:

Kerbal Space Program 2 has had a pretty tumultuous development cycle so far. Originally scheduled for a 2020 launch, the game was delayed to fiscal year 2021 “to make the experience as terrific as possible”. Not long afterward, it was hit with another delay, this one to Fall 2021, owing to the development team facing challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, it has been delayed yet again. As mentioned by Take Two Interactive in its quarterly financial report and then confirmed by creative director Nate Simpson on the game’s official forums, Kerbal Space Program 2 is now scheduled for a launch in 2022. The aforementioned Take-Two report pegs its launch window as FY 2023, which means it won’t be releasing anytime before April 2022.

“We knew we were taking on an immense technical and creative challenge when we started this project,” Simpson wrote. “We’ve heard time and again from this community that quality is paramount, and we feel the same way.
It’s not enough to deliver a bunch of new features – those features have to be woven together into a stable, polished whole. We’re creating a reliable foundation on which players and modders alike can build for another decade or more. That involves solving problems that have never been solved before, and that takes time.”

Development of the game moved from Star Theory Games – who developed its predecessor – to new in-house Take-Two studio Intercept Games earlier this year. Reports emerged some months ago that Take-Two Interactive had poached Star Theory’s staff during the process, leading to the studio’s closure. Read more on that through here.

Kerbal Space Program 2 is in development for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, but following this delay, it’s more than likely that the game will launch for next-gen consoles as well.

Earlier this year, Take-Two Interactive announced that the development of the upcoming simulation game Kerbal Space Program 2 was shifting away from indie studio Star Theory Games to a newly formed in-house studio at their publishing label Private Division. The announcement mentioned that various key members of the Star Theory staff had moved to the new studio and would continue leading the sequel’s development.

No reasons as to this turnover and the shifting of developers was provided at the time, but a new report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier sheds light on damning circumstances surrounding the situation, which allegedly saw Take-Two Interactive poaching Star Theory Games’ staff, which, in turn, ultimately led to the indie studio being forced to close its doors.

According to the report, while development on the game was proceeding as planned, in December 2019, Star Theory Games employees got a message on LinkedIn from Take-Two Interactive, informing them that they would be taking the project away from the indie studio and handing it to a newly formed team, while offering all of them positions at said team.

As per the report, in the LinkedIn message, Take-Two executive Michael Cook wrote: “This was an incredibly difficult decision for us to make, but it became necessary when we felt business circumstances might compromise the development, execution and integrity of the game. To that end, we encourage you to apply for a position with us.” The message also explained that Take-Two would be “offering a compensation package that includes a cash sign-on bonus, an excellent salary, bonus eligibility and other benefits.”

As it turned out, Star Theory co-founders Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor went on to disclose to their staff in a meeting shortly afterward that they had been in discussions with Take-Two regarding an acquisition of their studio, but that talks had not proceeded well.

With the Kerbal Space Program 2 contract with Take-Two the only source of income for the studio, Star Theory were in potential trouble, but Berry and Mavor assured employees that they had enough funds to remain afloat. Many members of the studio’s workforce immediately signed on with Intercept Games – the new studio formed to work on Kerbal Space Program 2 (as per the report, over half of Star Theory’s former staff are now employed at Intercept) – but those remaining at Star Theory decided to get to work immediately on ideas for a new project, that they would pitch to publishers at GDC 2020.

That, however, did not take into account the COVID-19 pandemic, which would go on to cause the delay of GDC 2020, among many, many other events. This ultimately led to Star Theory Games’ closure on March 4 of this year.

Kerbal Space Program is currently in development for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Following its recent delay, it’s due out in Fall 2021.