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With the apparent radio silence of Take-Two Interactive regarding the alleged cancellation of Kerbal Space Program 2 (KSP 2), a space-oriented sandbox game that was supposed to be the successor to the game originally created by Mexican game developer Felipe "HarvesteR" Falanghe, many gamers and gaming YouTube content creators speculate that the game is officially dead.

VCPost originally reported on the news after the game's publisher, Take-Two Interactive, reported on its quarterly gains in its latest earnings call two weeks ago.

During the session, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick announced the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 but denied the allegations that KSP 2 has been abandoned for good after layoffs in Seattle-based Intercept Games decimated the studio and only left a handful of people behind to allegedly work on the game.

KSP 2 Review-Bombed on Steam

In the aftermath of the layoffs in Intercept, many users left countless negative reviews on Steam, with recent reviews of the game labeled as "Overwhelmingly Negative."

Many of the Steam reviews said that KSP 2 under Take-Two took far too long to develop, and that the recent upgrades could be easily replicated and improved as a mod for the original KSP game.

GameRant and IGN reported at the time that the continuation of the development of the game would be transferred from Intercept to Private Division, but it was expected that players would switch back to Falanghe's original game as it has a strong and supportive modding community.

YouTubers Comment on KSP 2's Failure

Meanwhile, several videos were created after the announcement of the Intercept layoffs and Bloomberg's confirmation about the matter.

British KSP creator and space enthusiast Matt Lowne had one of the first major videos tackling the matter when he uploaded an hour-long YouTube video of him interviewing Falanghe about his comments on KSP 2.

On Friday (May 24), the YouTube channel ShadowZone uploaded a video highlighting the history of KSP 2's development and why it failed.

In it, ShadowZone creator Dan Bruce interviewed fellow KSP YouTubers like Lowne, as well as Scottish astrophysicist, pilot, and amateur DJ Scott Manley.

The video also revealed that Take-Two deliberately made the development of KSP 2 a secret "to keep people familiar with KSP 1 as far from the sequel as possible."

Despite him being a legend in the Kerbal Space Program community for applying his academic expertise in tandem with his enthusiasm about rocket science in the original game, Take-Two's management have mentioned Manley by name as one of the persons that they did not want to have any input from.

"I'm not offended that they chose not to ask me, from a philosophical point-of-view," Manley responded in the revelation mentioned by Bruce.

Factors Why Take-Two's Takeover of KSP 2 Failed

Moreover, Bruce's video mentioned several factors as to why KSP 2 allegedly failed, such as the game's original developer, Uber Entertainment (later named as Star Theory Games), developing a notoriety for publishing and developing other previous games, and Take-Two's decision to keep the development a secret in order not to receive backlash from any gaming community, KSP fans included.

It also explained how KSP 2's creative director Nate Simpson was ill-equipped in leading the game's development due to his lack of knowledge about engineering and rocket science and his focus on aesthetics rather than on functionality, which was also how Take-Two's management wanted the game to be developed.

Several former Intercept employees also confirmed Take-Two's focus on aesthetics over functionality to the video's creator on the condition of anonymity due to the sensibility of the matter and non-disclosure agreements.

Star Theory was dissolved in 2020, just as the world was about to be hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, but many of the company's talent that was developing KSP 2 were allegedly poached by Private Division, a Take-Two subsidiary, despite the fact that acquisition talks were already underway a year prior, in 2019. Most of the developers, the video alleged, have no emotional attachment to Kerbal Space Program and have not even played it as part of the development process.

Moreover, apart from Simpson and three other engineers, most of the developers have already left or not been absorbed due to irreconcilable differences on how to develop the game and on work benefits and packages.

The cycle of hiring and firing people at Intercept during the development of KSP 2's early access version also contributed to the game's apparent demise. Many, if not most, of the job cuts on Intercept after Take-Two announced its closure would take effect by the end of June 2024.

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Take Two Interactive