We've Had Enough Of This...

Players of Kerbal Space Program 2 deserve better. The developers deserve better. Rollerdrome appears to have been a big success, and exactly the sort of game we want more of, yet it's studio's reward is closure.
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Sources:
esd.wa.gov/about-employees/WARN
x.com/tooManyWes/status/17850...
www.gamedeveloper.com/busines...
/ its_over
store.steampowered.com/news/a...
store.steampowered.com/app/21...
www.pcgamesn.com/kerbal-space...
web.archive.org/web/202101070...

[@BellularNews]

Join us at bellular.games for early access content, 20 editions of 'Loading Screen' a month and to support our team!

[@LauraTons]

please realign your mic holding band :( it hurts my ocd to watch...

[@delindsay]

Moral of the story (goes for any Industry) NEVER EVER EVER sell your Company to a gigantic for-profit Publicly held Corporation because bad things WILL ensue.

[@Iffy350]

But muh capitalism

[@Skrallizar]

Unless you're going bankrupt and don't have a way of saving yourself.

[@stillcantbesilencedevennow]

What do they care? By that point they're laughing their way to the bank, having sold something they never really loved to begin with.

[@halycon404]

The flip side of that is The Tale of Obsidian. They were independent for almost two decades while sitting on what was probably the largest collection of industry veterans of western RPGs. They just could not get a win. The best version of every franchise they worked on is the one they made. Everything they touched is beloved by someone. Even their failures have a sort of cult classic status for writing and inventiveness of mechanics. And they were constantly in worry of going bankrupt from publisher deals. It was kinda sad. Every publisher hired them to work on a game because they knew it would be a good game and they knew their financial situation was so bad they'd take anything just to keep the doors open. Obsidian got taken advantage of by everyone while trying to stay independent.

[@brianm.595]

Unless exiting completely... then its their problem.

[@TierHarribel]

Indie games have made up like 70% of what I play the last few years, if this leads to more developers going indie and joining smaller groups, I'll call that a win.

[@Yinzermakesvids]

Ain't you special

[@jimster1111]

the last AAA title i bought was cyberpunk at launch and i didnt play it until the 2.0 update. starsector and rimworld take up most of my gaming time nowadays

[@VolkColopatrion]

Well not exactly not for this devs not for these people here in such a bad way. Just remember that Publishers are vampires

[@demarcorr]

yea same. indies fill my library and i havemt touched a big title for the better part of a decade. industry is ripe for new devs and talent to come in and deliver what market wants cause these big players are awful

[@VolkColopatrion]

@@Yinzermakesvids I think you could be a little bit nicer with your counter. And also counter his point. These people are out of a job

[@RedlinePush]

What they did to Kerbal is heart wrenching. That game was the nexus of something that transcends a video game. It created a community, and it spread the understanding and love of the realities of space travel.

[@cmdrlawliet3552]

My childhood friend is literally studying astrophysics because of that game. I remember him trying to explain KSP to me when we were still both in primary school, and while it was pretty lost on me, he clearly had such a passion and interest for it that it's gone on to literally shape his life. What a shame to hear about Kerbal :(

[@YammoYammamoto]

It really did... :/

[@monad_tcp]

its gone, one thing I've learned, when the original devs are gone, the thing is over. we should stop buying thing for their name, and only buy things made by those who know how to make. companies need to learn that IP means nothing, its the people that create the value. which is why everything is a dead carcass when it comes to public companies

[@Eltener123]

@@cmdrlawliet3552 as an actual astrophysicist that's cringe

[@connorsniples4010]

@@Eltener123 As an actual areospace engineer, get over yourself. Sure, I was intrested in spaceflight and engineering far prior to my discovery of KSP, but I absolutely benifited directly from the hands-on experience I could get with the results of orbital mechanics in a way that absolutely would not have been possible without KSP. Sure, I never learned how to do real engine design from the game, but the intuitions it built for me about rocket engine size, thrust needs in different parts of missions, and the unintuitive nature of orbital manuvers absolutely helped me in university and kept a passion for it alive even when the only part of space I was learning about was locked behind nightmares of partial differential equations.

[@CorvusABray]

Not only did Take Two shut down the original private dev team by cancelling the contract and poaching the company's dev's, they then turn around and shut the NEW dev team down too.

[@everythingpony]

Wait what? Source?

[@CorvusABray]

@@everythingpony Forgot when this happened, but it was before early access release. Bellular even touched on it here.

[@cgoodwin256]

Let's be fair. This needed to end. It has been a decade of sheer incompetence and greed.

[@quinnhutson5566]

To be fair, the original dev was essentially trying to sell their employees to Take 2 before they were poached

[@Saviliana]

@@everythingpony 2021, the original dev squad was dissolved to make way for the Take-two in house Private Division team, and the royally fucked it up.

[@matthewbreen1951]

Two years from now "Why can't we find people to make video games anymore?"

[@ShinkuAura]

This. This is what will happen in the coming years. Many people being laid off are going to make their small studios, and it's only a matter of time until we see a big AA dominace. These big publishers are completely out of touch. It's time for the old guard to pass on.

[@f4rtsman425]

Oh they will find them, they aren't likely to join them though

[@nigelcalpe]

i fear that is the point *tin foil hat on* i believe mega corps are trying to destroy the gaming industry

[@RancorSnp]

I wish that were the case. Fingers crossed but I'm not getting my hopes up

[@walkju1]

2 years from now they can hire new, inexperienced staff who grew up dreaming on making games, pay them 1/4 the salary and release KSP 3 where you have DLC for everything and KSP Infinite a mobile free to play game that makes T2 loads more profit

[@kdog3908]

KSP felt like it was slow walking to the gallows as soon as I heard they'd been bought by Take Two. In this instance, I derive no satisfaction from being right.

[@Shadowkey392]

And what if they keep working on it like they’ve said they are?

[@yautjamerk9159]

@@Shadowkey392 KSP 2 was a failure at heart and from the very start. The launch was catastrophic and saw over 80% of dowloads get refunded in the hour. Everyone knew the promesses were empty shells but we wanted to believe, because KSP has such a dedicated fanbase, it's a unique game. I'm really sorry for the dev team who lost their job over this but the game was doomed anyway 🤕

[@visvires6305]

It's a damn burden being right all the time.

[@quinntonhuffman5260]

Nothing a corporate executive gets involved in goes well. A truly fascinating system we have created where these c-suite losers can make so many awful decisions yet are richly rewarded. And everyone around them pays the price.

[@Dajova]

Bobby says hello. He created their hellhole and reaped the benefits and then dipped out. "cya nerds!" or whatever. Now every CEO is trying to copy that and see where that leads.

[@sodasaintcommentaries4054]

My degree is in business admin and I 100% agree. This rewarding of mediocrity must come to an end. Golden parachutes are WILDLY unethical.

[@stsk7]

@@sodasaintcommentaries4054 exactly, this is not how a merit based system is supposed to work. When a company is failing why shouldn't the CEO be the first to take a pay cut rather than 500 employees at the bottom following orders?

[@MiaChillfox]

@@stsk7 For my entire life I have never seen "merit based" to ever mean skill based, be it in business or politics it's always been a code for rich white man with well connected rich parents.

[@borginburkes1819]

@@MiaChillfoxyou nailed it.

[@BritBox777]

When the execs say "Yeah, updates are still coming" after firing all the developers it REALLY makes me wonder... do they not realise people need to make those? Are they actually that detached?

[@Sovek86]

Its entirely possible that T2 is moving KSP2 ro a different studio that can ACTUALLY get stuff done. KSP2 had an initial release date of 2020, three years after they started development. here we are 4 years after the initial release date and barely have a playable game. No Mans Sky had a similar length of development but got alot more done than the KSP 2 devs

[@geehammer1511]

The updates that the now fired people finished before they got kicked out the door.

[@ATSaale]

​@@Sovek86 ksp2 has already sold plenty of copies, what's the punishment for just dropping it?

[@doltBmB]

@@ATSaale EU consumer protection laws forcing them to refund everyone.

[@mastah39]

@@Sovek86 You hire the people you can afford. As much as a good PR move it may be, the fact that Intercept was hiring fresh devs and modders of the first game instead of industry veterans means that Private Division budget for developing it wasn't that much higher compared to Squad and KSP1, at least not enough to attract better talent. A studio as an entity can't be at fault. It's always the publisher fault, even if you have a problematic lead, you don't close the studio, you fire that person and replace it. This isn't about performance, this is a matter of cutting a certain % of the workforce, and as Rollerdome and Hi-Fi rush devs have proved, performance isn't a concernt in that math.

[@exterminater267]

When I heard that KSP2 devs sold out to be incorporated into a blanket studio, I knew this was going to be the outcome. Thats all these blanket companies do. Buy up the rights to titles, get peoples money, close the indie studio but keep the title rights. Now the studio we all know and love lost their studio, AND lost the rights to their own game franchise. We will no longer have ANY KSP games in the future now.

[@Araanor]

Happens each and every time and i don't understand why they never learn.

[@kaligath6616]

The only thing that is kept is the title it does not stop a company from using similar concepts to create a new game under a different title just look at pal world for example if anything this leaves a market open for someone to come in with a better product because lets face it KSP 2 was a buggy mess.

[@SimuLord]

@@kaligath6616 My thoughts exactly-that's how we get "spiritual successor from the original creators."

[@bmichael103]

@@kaligath6616 "KSP 2 is still a buggy mess". Fixed that for you.

[@lubricustheslippery5028]

Take 2 wasted money on buying the IP than even more on hiring devs and didn't make a game and got bad reputation, so that couldn't be a good deal for them.

[@Skrallizar]

If a game doesn't make as much as GTAV Online, than it's not worth it - TakeTwo, apparently

[@DaleRojoDecaf]

But that's probably what happened. No other game could outpace that income, so what was the point for a CEO still rolling in bonus checks?

[@isaac-ga]

😂😂😂

[@sig9779]

The game that should never have been in early access will now never leave it. At this point, early access is something I'd only consider trusting an indie dev with. Any corporate studio or publisher should be denied the privilege.

[@Mabswer]

Just goes to show that having an outside or "third party" publisher / owner is a bad thing. Go solo / indi for there is no need to publishers in current day

[@VolkColopatrion]

Or at least make the contract Ironclad. Publishers can help a lot of things with marketing and covering expenses but it's always going to be on their terms unless you have a contract and making sure that everything is squared away the only time you should need a publisher is that there's going to be a mutual benefit

[@eran3161]

While I agree with the general sentiment, keep in mind that in game development you will work on a title for years before it actually brings on money. So the thought of an affluent company paying the bills is very tempting and makes a lot of sense for many studios.

[@VolkColopatrion]

@@eran3161 until publisher acts as a vampire. You get more money in your pocket if you don't use a publisher and the only people your beholden to is the people that buy the game

[@gabrote42]

​@@eran3161 Not necessarily. Some indies like Sleeper Games make small games in a year that are extremely good. If the dude just had some way to announcements they would make a lot of cash (they have 100% positives). But if you can afford to spend years making an amazing game then that's all the better. So many of the indies Inlove took 5-8 years to make

[@Henbot]

Tbh in older days ( probably still do it now ) of music you had producers and record companies that would purchase bands music and just never release them and just spin out an act that was in the style of the music bands they were sitting on. Way to eliminate competition but also maintain an advantage on a style of music

[@magetsalive5162]

Huh, it's almost as if purchased studios serve as ablative armor for big publishers - suffer reputation damage? Just throw away a studio! Gee, that sure seems like a really smart idea that absolutely will never ever backfire!

[@fetzie23]

TT has so much distance to the actual customer, probably less than 1% of them will even know that TT called the shots.

[@cosmicusstardust3300]

We are witnessing the implosion of the AAA industry, indie is the future now

[@elzabethtatcher9570]

Indie is next AAA.

[@Bambeakz]

Let’s hope so. Gaming started with indie studio’s and they grown in the monsters they are now. But they first have to crash to give the indies space to grow.

[@randomka-52alligatorthatis34]

​@@elzabethtatcher9570The Circle of the Industry I guess.

[@SpottedHares]

Yes the largest pie slice year after year after year is imploding. What are you smoking and can I have some?

[@alaxs2431]

No, what we are witnessing is a poor economy leading to less people spending money in leisure. Companies, despite what people think, are not comprised of idiots. They are downsizing spending in what will probably be a less profitable set of years.

[@Hedgehobbit]

KSP 2 is a great example of the dangers of Early Access. If the game doesn't do well, it will never be completed. Then you are stuck. No one will buy KSP 3 and if you try and finish KSP 2 then you will have to do so with zero new sales. The franchise is toast.

[@TokisFishingPlanet]

it was toast with KSP1 no console support and a bunch of lying about it lost me early on.....

[@----.__]

@@TokisFishingPlanet lol, console

[@fusemaster]

​@@TokisFishingPlanet lol, console

[@Jose_Doe]

​@@----.__if it's so lolworthy why cry about Microsoft axing studios

[@urazz7739]

To be fair, if you release a sequel to a game then it should be at least as good as the first game in terms of gameplay and amount of content. KSP 2 was in worse shape than KSP 1 in every single way pretty much.

[@Kesvalk]

publishers are vampires.

[@thewick-j1837]

No vampires need the blood. Publishers destroy for greed and gluttony.

[@ajkulac9895]

Publishers are corporations, so yes

[@christophelemaire4551]

Publishers are decision making companies for the things they publish, as they're making all the marketing campaign and all publishing things about what they will sell. It's a real job and those things cost money too.

[@nitehawk86]

The world is a vampire.

[@formes2388]

Some: Yes. The good ones tend to get squashed/bought out. But there are a few. Publishers are like every company: Stage 1: You get a passionate person, who wants to help people get their products to market. They themselves have struggled through the process - and wish to make it easier. Stage 2: The original founder is succeeded - this successor typically fully understands the work and effort, and has a huge respect for the creators. He worked with a creator - and see's the passion. This phase is a fair bit of optimizing, making the entire show run a little smoother but it's still very much a great place for the creators to go. Stage 3: The first successor is replaced by a purely business numbers guy. This guy has very little to no understanding of the actual process of creation - R&D is seen as a cost burden they do not understand, and odds are this guy is a marketing guy. This is when things start to go downhill. Optional Stage: The Original founder, or the successor are brought back to reinvigorate the company. Stage 4: The company devolves into profit first, marketing second, creators sometime after if at all. All passion for the craft slowly gets erased, and the ego's that have never created a true thing of value of it's own end up running the show. This is how you end up with DEI initiatives convinced that you just have to appeal to the right people to grow sales, or you get studio's pushed into producing a product that is completely foreign to what they have mastered over the previous decade or two. Stage 5: Profit loss - at this point, the only way to stay profitable is to cut costs. Senior developers, "under performing" studio's, and more get sold off, closed, and terminated. IP might be sold off if desperate enough, but typically that is held as a "It might have value later" despite the very people who understood the property are all gone and what ever new team you build is liable to turn fans against it. Stage 6: Bankruptcy. In a financial state of decline there are basically two options - the first, is bankruptcy and winding down the business. The other, is selling the entire thing off either wholesale (Microsoft buying out Activision sort of falls under this - a bit more nuanced as it was more opportunistic and Activision likely had another decade in it - but the signs of decline were all present), or piecemeal where you auction things off to cover debts. If you want to avoid Stage 3: You need to create a culture of training passionate creators to take over the business aspects and continue the path of being a creator focused enterprise. But sooner or later, someone gets to a point of having enough, or makes a mistake on who the successor is, and you fall to stage 3. If you have a REALLY strong culture, it can be reversed - but few businesses ever achieve that. Especially in today's day and age where companies have made it only feasible to stay ahead with income by changing jobs every 18 months to 3 years.

[@goldfish1837]

I only play indies or critically aclaimed AAA from atleast 2 years back Corperate is destroying everything allong with their own future profits they want so bad. It's baffeling how little business insight C level exccess are

[@LarsaXL]

Yeah same here. I usually play last year's titles or older. Saves a lot of disappointment.

[@valasdarkholme6255]

Yeah, I can count the big-studio-games I enjoyed since the witcher 3's release on one hand. (Not counting remasters)

[@doltBmB]

This is not corporate, Intercept was incompetent.

[@szasztamas9720]

C level executives make good business decisions for their pockets.

[@mastah39]

@@LarsaXL Also, ignoring reviews, opinions and especially youtube drama around games can save just as much disappointment. There's nothing better than enjoying a great book/game/movie/series and then finding out later from the internet that you were supposed to hate it. Going in after the reviews always ruins the experience.

[@rogeriopenna9014]

Kerbal 1 story is quite crazy. Felipe Falanghe, a brazilian who loved to make rockets as a kid (and says he doesn´t know how he didn´t lost some fingers) was working on Squad in Mexico, an e-Marketing company who had never developed a game. Felipe approached them with the idea of Kerbal and they bought the idea and assembled a team of people who had never created a game...

[@Ylyrra]

I believe he said he was going to leave to work on his game, and they counter-offered with "if we pay to you work on it for a few days a week will you stay and keep doing your current job the rest of the week?" And then the game got some traction and they ended up turning it into a real project. Basically ended up having a games developer department almost by accident. Tech industry in general needs more bosses like that. KSP2 story is the polar opposite, it's kinda heart-breaking in contrast.

[@MrScott664]

I understand the appeal for a studio to be bought by a large publisher as it’ll bring in more capital to invest in a game while also not having to worry about advertising. However, time and time again large publishers continue to show they only care for the stock holders. And because the current system prioritizes infinite growth, small studios will always pay the price. On a hopeful note, publishers aren’t needed nearly as much as they once were.

[@markguyton2868]

To be fair, I've never heard of Rollerdrome until this video, but it still sucks that the old saying of "just make good games" is now a fallacy. I'm also starting to see a pattern regarding publishers and really bad decisions in the name of "now money".

[@geehammer1511]

Same, never heard of rollerdrome before.

[@natehancock9663]

This is the industry. Until its completely rebuilt it will only continue to get worse until it crashes, if that ever happens but all markets dip.

[@bilson7523]

Nah, this is just the bubble bursting and MSoft executing the plan they already had in place. Reality is 2020-2021 were such MASSIVE successes, companies got fat. They started spending dumb and it didn't matter because the cash was flowing. Fast forward two years, the federal reserve is still holding the economy hostage because the only thing less reputable than CEOs are Politicians and Journalists. Loans to make big games are just not there, so, you need to cut projects. After you cut projects, studios end up idle (or fat). That happens enough, studios collapse. Same thing happened to film and tech last year. I don't think people realize a lot of these creative industries are fueled by the pipeline. Doesn't matter if your last game was successful if you don't have something to work on next. The one exception here are the MSoft closures, specifically Tango Gameworks. I believe some of these closures have been planned since the acquisition, and I think the writing was on the wall with the re-org last year.

[@hadrieneverard8121]

It already has couple decades ago and I think it will again in some capacity

[@adas3497]

Triple As need to go DOWN. this is actually abhorrent.

[@Spheraz]

don't worry, the only thing that can kill the triple a industry is the triple a industry

[@TickleFight94]

Nothing improves morale more than letting the workforce know the quality of their work has nothing to do with whether they get to keep their jobs (sarcasm).

[@MCPBA000]

We need some sort of industry protections or laws to prevent what happened with Kerbal Space Program 2. It feels like fraud. Or false advertisement at a minimum.

[@Ltdeathsquid]

Now I'm just as disappointed as anyone else, but this is the risk with early access games. Taken from the store page right at the top: Early Access Game Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops. Note: *This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further.* If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more Everyone that bought Early Access agreed to those terms so it can not be constituted as fraud or a scam.

[@gpturismo]

"Xbox buying ABK is a good thing it will save gaming!" lol.

[@AoiKaze2000]

Well, at least it improved the working conditions within ABK.... we hope...

[@keit99]

@@AoiKaze2000 weren't those already better before the take-over? Because they were practically forced too?

[@gpturismo]

​@@keit99 I believe you are right.

[@bilson7523]

Yeah, it's almost comical how exactly what dozens of analysts said would happen is: MSoft is dropping redundant studios now that the company structure is tightening.

[@bilson7523]

​@@AoiKaze2000All MSoft did was recognize what was already being done. ABK was forced by the state of Washington to change multiple things as a result of the lawsuits. And I've heard from some that the changes have addressed some problems, but the company's basically still a giant meat grinder where you walk on egg shells.

[@fakecubed]

We can pretty much blame the same conglomerates that destroyed film and television. They figured games were the next big thing and wanted to have a monopoly on that too. The difference is, distribution is way easier in video games, and anyone can make a pretty fun game as a one man shop. There was so much more competition in gaming and no way was the usual scummy behavior of the major entertainment conglomerates was going to work out for them. Unfortunately, they still tried, because they're a bunch of boomers who don't know anything about the market.

[@davidfitzsimmons2451]

I had predicted these shutdowns and layoffs would be happening in massive numbers within a time frame of a couple of years. Same thing happened a few years after the 08 recesion. Economy was shit except for the games inudstry, which saw AMAZING growth. Created a massive bubble that kept rising until it burst hard in 2011-2012 ish. We saw massive layoffs and shutdowns across the industry, took out big names like THQ(they got revived later) and Midway. Its now a few years after the end of the covid crisis, an economic disaster event that saw entertainment industries like video games see a MASSIVE boom. Now the history is repeating. Get ready everyone, this is NOT the end if it follows what happened last time, could be another year of these happening

[@shroomer3867]

By video game industries you mean AAA studios like Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Take Two, etc, right? I would assume that indie companies that aren't part of those publishers aren't part of the bubble, because they don't hire by the truck-load on a project they were going to lay off anyways a few months later because management doesn't want to do its job right.

[@davidfitzsimmons2451]

@@shroomer3867 in terms of the historical pattern, indie is an unknown, that side of the industry was new and burgeoning back then. Heck you could say the indie industry really came into being as a result of these upsets in the industry, Fez came out in 2012 and cave story had just begun to reemerge into greater public awareness. I would say the combination of laid off experienced workers and fresh from college inexperienced new blood all competing for the same entry level positions led to the surge of the indie scene. But for the here and now, I would say depends on the Indie. Some have a bit more backing that may dry up. Now I am sure the scene overall will see a greater surge of fresh talent and ideas, but some of the longer lived indie devs that managed to get more investment backing behind them might struggle.

[@S1L3NTIGamer]

I genuinely believe that more and more indie developers are going to stay independent over the next few years because it’s blatantly clear that the ONE advantage that a big publisher brings to a dev, a stable and secure source of resources, is explicitly no longer the reality. All we see nowadays is layoffs and closed studios. An arguably less stable source of resources and income. It’s fucking despicable.

[@NAC_Exec]

EA has been doing this since the early 2000s. Bastards killed my favorite studio Westwood

[@CapitalTeeth]

Damn. And I was ready to sing KSP2's praises to kingdom come after the science update, since it looked like they really were trying to make something out of the game.

[@YodaIzChaos]

The biggest shame is that NONE of the features that were promised to make the game stand out from the original have been able to be implemented.

[@DeaconG1959]

Mergers and Acquisitions never end well for the company acquired. First they reduce the benefits, then they have the layoffs, then they sell off the intellectual and physical property and...it's gone!

[@sistockbridge8764]

Lol, reminds me of that South Park scene where Stan takes his check to the Bank

[@Barot8]

Too much greed and bad decisions by publishers. They buy up studios and then constantly end up closing them as they've spent too much. You won't see them firing executives.

[@RpattoYT]

That's extremely naive view of what's happening here. Clearly not all has been well at the studio. 5+ years of alpha development to release into EA on a abysmal state. Tbh funding 5 years of KSP2 is a pretty huge investment for the expected return of a niche game like KSP.

[@mastah39]

@@RpattoYT Who planned for the development, opened the studio, hired the devs? Let me check... Oh, yes, it's the publisher! Still their fault.

[@trivalentclan-mizar9591]

Who pouched the employees from the original developer while in negotiations. Take two. Shitty enough that Bloomberg covered it b

[@shinjutsu2773]

the moment i saw take two taking the reigns on kerbal space program i knew this was gonna happen. None of the issues surprised me. The abysmal launch. The high price. The lack of content and now the closure of the studio. It's about as predictable as it can get

[@alphatucanaletsplay]

You said it: avarice. Many businesses sink into avarice when they're taken over by the bean-counters and somehow they can become very successful for a time. But long-term sustainability for any enterprise also needs decent morals and ethics. A lot of the biggest corporations in the world don't believe this, of course, and remain big for now. They continue gobbling up good ethical businesses which basically represent competition or resources for them.

[@trivalentclan-mizar9591]

A paper corp bought the local paper mill to close it to increase the price of glossy magazine paper. Same story over and over.

[@Dexter01992]

The other day I was discussing with a friend on "why a company like Sony does this to HD2 being fully aware this will ruin the game's reputation". I was being replied "because the company has obligations towards investors and they will get sued if they do not do what they promised, so they get desperate and start pushing stuff in the attempt to show them that things are running well, even if it's a lie, so long as numbers go up". Ok. So why can a company like T2 get away with cancelling an unfinished product I bought and run away with the money of my purchase? Why can they do it every single damn time? Why if I do that to my commissioners I get sued, but if big corpo does it it's all fair and square? Can we put some damn laws to stop this BS? Either you refund me, or you fulfill your damn promises. If putting an EULA saying "we reserve the right to drop the project at any time we want to" is legal, then how come if I do that I'd still get sued and they don't?

[@MiaChillfox]

The steps to fixing it are not that hard, the problem is that a huge number of people are convinced that regulations/laws/taxes/bureaucracy are bad and that we should be reducing it instead of increasing it. 1. Add more consumer protection laws/regulations. 2. Hire bureaucrats to enforce the new laws/regulations. 3. Raise taxes to pay the bureaucrats (I suggest getting the taxes from mega corps)

[@fabienz31]

KSP was one of the games I poured my soul into. Back in the day, there was a free aerodynamics updates and that was awesome. Then at some point, it got into the end of Take-Two and Private Division, there was paid dlc, a special private Division launcher. All terrible. Then KSP2 pre-released. Huge pricetag, bare bones, and yet needing a NASA supercomputer to run (the irony). All kickass trailers, no product. And multiple studio change a slow, slow descent into shitness that could have been spotted a mile away. And it all hurt so much. I'll check on the game once in a while, but I'm not expecting much tbh

[@deanender14-jx4to]

Started to think that selling out to megacorps is like taking Luciferium in rimworld, take 8 days to get another dose or you will die. (Meaning you have to make a game quick, and release it unfinished to get profit or get shutdown)

[@doltBmB]

Intercept was incompetent. Take 2 gave them over 5 years of extra time, they were extremely lenient. We were supposed to be playing the FULL RELEASE in 2020, a date set by Intercept themselves.

[@ligmasack9038]

Nate Simpson and the crew at Intercept Games flat out lied about KSP2 and the state it would be in on E.A. Release while charging $50 for a barely functioning Alpha Release; which is Fraud.

[@watchm4ker]

I don't believe they lied. We've seen from other studio closures that this happens suddenly and without notice or warning, even at very high levels. More than likely, their first notice was being locked out of access to their systems that morning.

[@dumbidiot4548]

@@watchm4ker ksp2 is not so fun it is a productivity issue. hence, they lied.

[@okankyoto]

@@watchm4ker They were fired with notice, so they have a bit until it happens. Usually companies put people on paid leave during that time, it wouldn't have been a lockout.

[@LordSluggo]

@@watchm4ker I think he means back when it first released, or even when it was announced back in 2020. Allegedly they were having so much fun with the new colonization and everything that they could hardly focus on their work. And then it released and....you know the rest

[@chrishoppner150]

@@watchm4ker Oh I'm sure they will release that internal multiplayer build that was eating so much into their office productivity. They wouldn't lie about that. Definitely not.

[@JonahJdawg]

These small studios just need to hold strong and quit letting these big publishers gobble em up

[@enriquejavier8056]

they do it for the money duh, the owners get paid big bucks, and go retire to a quiet life on the beach somewhere. Happens with all start up companies, not just indie games. A lot of these indie devs probalby planned to do just that since the beginning.

[@doltBmB]

Intercept was incompetent.

[@mastah39]

@@doltBmB That would be a great excuse if it wasn't that, a first party studio being incompetent is still the Publisher's fault for not funding it properly. If you can only hire fresh devs and modders are the only veterans you can afford... You have what you pay for.

[@doltBmB]

@@mastah39 They've been funded for 5+ years past the original release date. Safe to say Take 2 threw a mountain of money after this. It's 100% on Intercept.

[@doltBmB]

@@mastah39 they funded over 5 years of delays for the game, it's 100% on intercept not delivering within that time.

[@mattijohansen3471]

If I am a game dev, or small game studio. I would think hard and long on who I am getting into bed with. Publishers seems to be given way to much power. They are not just publishing games. They 100% own them. Even if not on paper. But they can completely sink them. Or close them. And ruin any future for them. Can be Paradox that just sink your games with bad decisions of releasing 20% finished games, in order to spam full game price DLC for the next 10 years. ( really wished gamers had a Helldiver moment with Paradox to stop them. Because they are no longer interested in making or releasing good games for their consumers. They design it to be empty, void and hollow. So they can spend the next 10 years selling 40-50 DLC's at between 20 and 40 dollars each, to make it as it should have been at release. And only a Helldiver moment can stop that insanity. Sadly, to many defend them ) Sony doing stuff. Microsoft doing stuff. Selling your studio, is most likely signing its death in this day an age. At best it will be torn apart and divided out into something else, at worst it will just be shut down, and its games and titles and universes put into a box where no one is allowed to work with it. And making deals with bad publishers will most likely force you into changing your game into something you do not want, and abuse the people you want to have a good time with your game. A lose lose. Should really start to consider the contracts you make. And not give away the key. If nothing else, we can hope hands of publishers start popping up. Might get less money, but you dont have to sell out your players, or your soul. But something will change, its peoples lifeworks that is just gutted time after time, by people who do not care about anything. So these people will start to look for contracts where they can have enough to build a game, but don't have to ruin the game before its ever released.

[@alexturnbackthearmy1907]

Oh, paradox, a tale old as a time. It is even more funny because BASE game isnt cheap (or even free ffs) either.

[@mattijohansen3471]

@@alexturnbackthearmy1907 Yea, Paradox could really do with a Helldiver event. Even when they completely messed up City Skylines, they did not really get much of the anger. It was all directed at the studio.

[@frogking5573]

​@mattijohansen3471 Okay, but colossal orders were not entirely innocent either. They lied about the game massively and tried to gaslight the community.

[@mattijohansen3471]

@@frogking5573 OFC not. its their game. And even though Paradox forced them to release, even though they did not want to do so. And forced them into the DLC nightmare and all that. They still made the deal with Paradox. And did what they where told. So not without fault. But the reason behind their actions where still Paradox.

[@doltBmB]

Intercept is at fault here.

[@mute_ed984]

They kill the good games, the bad games and leave us with the ugly..... I need to restock my AAA Batteries and get my Gameboy up and running again. That's my version of AAA Gaming for quite some time now. In the meantime, NES is nice too.

[@xmhkillz]

this is what happens when the only thing that matters is short term stock growth, shareholders do not care if you increase profits by making a good product or firing half your staff, as long as you deliver a number that is higher than before.

[@alexturnbackthearmy1907]

And all of that happened because some bald dude archived "impossible" "company growth" few decades ago by ripping guts out of major company and selling them, and then dipping with billions in his (and shareholders) pockets, which was then made into mf RELIGION, that every CEO and manager is being taught nowadays because "your job is to maxsimize shareholders value, nothing more".

[@doltBmB]

This is what happens when the devs are incompetent. Take 2 gave them over 5 years of extra time, no doubt representing a mountain of money, because they believed in the brand and the project. This is not a corporate issue.

[@trivalentclan-mizar9591]

Same thing at another company a friend worked at. They had two bad years so management cut staff 30%. All the people who knew how to get things done. Lower managers with so little left their only choice is to leave. Just a big company desperately trying to go out of business, aka Sears, DEC (digital equipment corp), SGI (silicon graphics inc), World Com, Arthur Anderson (accounting), Enron.

[@developerdeveloper67]

This is the end of an era. The end of the managerial elites in video-games. Like I said in the previous comment, the only games that will survive are the very very small developers (where there are no managers) and the very very large main titles (where all the managers that survive will flock to). All the game studio sizes in the middle are going instinct.

[@grtninja]

This shit with KSP 2 is a damn shame. It has all the bones now of a good game, once they fixed the wobbly rockets, but even that was like pulling teeth to get them to do it. And all the while Nate Simpson is saying how they can't put down the test builds of the game. There was no follow through, they acted like we would just wait forever for the game to get good. There's plenty of Indy games that do updates weekly and monthly, religiously, even while working on other projects. Intercept had 7 years and barely reached parity with the base game of its predecessor. Sure, it probably looked like a mountain of fixes but that's why you just need to start and release fixes, so people see you're doing something. weekly updates with 5 fixes would have been better than waiting months in between updates. I'm so sure Intercept is going to work super hard between now and June 28 to push out that last feature update. (sarcasm) Why the F would they bother when these devs know they're done in a few weeks, apathy level 9000 right there. Frankly, they should probably not include that they worked on KSP2 on their resume in their next interview, and Nate should probably find work in anything other than games for a while. His credibility is below zero now, good luck with that. I'm glad T2 pulled the plug, maybe now they can get a decent studio on this game.

[@grtninja]

This should be a warning to the Cities skylines 2 devs, and any other developer resting on their laurels. It's time to update your game!

[@MiaChillfox]

It has been clear for a while now that the people making KSP 2 did not actually want to make a KSP game and did not care about what the community wanted at all.

[@LordSluggo]

The "bones" were KSP1. There's nothing in KSP2 to even justify its own existence over KSP1.

[@grtninja]

@@LordSluggo Maybe you're not grasping the concept of a sequel.

[@LordSluggo]

@@grtninja Name on thing KSP2 in its current state does better than KSP1. I'll give you only one: The tutorials, even though they really should have been narrated by Scott Manley instead of a kid.

[@IronSalamander8]

Man, Kerbal Space Program is so good! It's sad that 2 has been such a mess. This whole situation is so depressing these days.

[@doltBmB]

KSP1 is very unfinished too.

[@guardiantko3220]

Man, it is INSANE how many games just the last couple years to NOW have had huge whiplash

[@sterlinganon]

The idea was never to subsidize those indie products, despite Private divisions bullshit. It was always to make money, but in this case by tapping a different market, maybe find a gem that became huge (Minecraft canonically). Unfortunately PD never had the insight or culture to support indie developers. Just look at how many lawyers and other ancillaries are on ksp2's credits and you can see T2 does not know how to make a small anything. And of course, they handed the KSP IP to the absolute wrong developer when they chose Uber entertainment

[@1337GameDev]

9:50 - This is EXACTLY why i get PISSED when people say "well, just wait for the game to get updates -- they are free. stop complaining. You're the worst playerbase" Because updates, even if free, aren't guaranteed and ONLY are prioritized if it makes money or directly impacts profit. A game should be complete at launch and complete at the point of sale.

[@robertonoguera7076]

Fucking corporate greed destroying another one of my favorites

[@Alfred-Neuman]

You have to stay positive, maybe they will release a small version of KSP on mobile filed with ads and microtransactions! That would be cool no?

[@Sherudons]

The annoying thing about early access is it's abused so hard by a lot of developers, some games go a decade without a full release and then slap a 1.0 label on it and let it die, like mount and blade 2 for example. Early access should have a caveat that it gets completed within a time frame instead of it being treated like a weekend project until bored of it.

[@shinigamiauthor]

all entertainment industries are going through a hell of a contraction right now. as somebody who has been paying attention, its nigh impossible for me to have much sympathy. every one of these industries have been attacking their customer base, and they have been able to be propped up by outside investors. these people, companies, and entire industries have been allowed to be incredibly abusive to their customer base with no repercussions, until recently. these people were warned, they were even told what they needed to do to fix it. but they double and tripled down on it. as a result its all collapsing. and honestly, to quote the Starcraft 2 trailer, "hell, its about time."

[@GegoXaren]

They did not buy the rights to KSP... They stole the rights through shoddy contacts.

[@informitas0117]

Someone didn't read the contract then.

[@GegoXaren]

@@informitas0117 It was a trap contract. Take2 is infamous for making the, with what looks like good conditions and being fair, only to steel the workers, to trigger the trap.

[@GegoXaren]

@@informitas0117 It was a trap contract. Take2 is infamous for making trap contract that seem all above board, only to nab the tallent making the studio miss deadlines triggering the trap.

[@trivalentclan-mizar9591]

Slightly incorrect, they pouched the employees and backed the studio into a corner.

[@Synystr7]

Honestly, if Take Two gives KSP2 to another studio who has some semblance of a schedule? I wouldn't be too mad that Intercept is dead. Like... let's be real here. The game was a disaster. Yes, progress was being made, but at a snail's pace.

[@RpattoYT]

I'd be shocked if that actually happened. I'm mean, they still have an obligation to fulfill customers expectations based on long planned features but it's just not working at the current studio. Not that I believe they're likely to stick to their commitments in favor of just abandoning them; I think they cut and run.

[@Dommi8450]

Thank you for putting this news forward. It is definitely being overshadowed by the Xbox closings and this needs to be highlighted as well.

[@TheYear-dm9op]

With KSP2's official player numbers I could imagine people just waiting for when - and if - it get's better than KSP1. KSP1 has a loooot of great mods that make it far more than the base game. So it would take a long time to live up to that for KSP2. At least that's how I'm doing that. Sheesh, the center of gravity doesn't even change in KSP2, depending on how full the tank is. I bought it, when it entered early access, knowing full well that it might most probably go pear shaped.

[@Whocaresfrfrfrim]

Shit like this is what inspired me to be an solo indie dev

[@Satook]

Line must go up. If it won’t, we preemptively sack people and blame their “underperformance”. Should sack the C suite.

[@urazz7739]

I heard that a lot of the team that made Hi-Fi Rush left either to retire, move on to other projects, or joined other studios in other companies. If that is true, then they pretty much shut down a studio that was pretty much a skeleton crew at that point and I won't begrudge Microsoft that.

[@paulcrews9551]

All these layoffs are going to have a serious impact on the quality of the gaming industry. How many talented people out in the world will either leave or completely avoid a career in game industry because of all the volatility and corporate bullshitteru

[@trivalentclan-mizar9591]

Both my sons did. Both had the skills but knew better.

[@00yiggdrasill00]

And this is why a crash of the large gaming companies is inevitable. when a successful game that makes a profit is simply not good enough, nothing will ever be good enough for them.

[@RpattoYT]

Except, it's not successful enough to be viable.

[@00yiggdrasill00]

@@RpattoYT viability of an artistic venture is entirely subjective.

[@Streaky100001]

Is that a record? Take 2 have now killed 2 studios with the same game. The screwed over and killed star theory in the early days of KSP2 dev, and now intercept.

[@robalberto1583]

“Make bad games, you lose your job. Make good games, believe it or not, you also lose your job.” That is cruelty to artist…

[@OutsiderLabs]

KSP 2 is not a good game, it's not even a game. They deserved to lose their jobs. Seven years and they did basically nothing.

[@robalberto1583]

@@OutsiderLabs You seem like a nice hang at a party... There is consequences and decisions. I don't know KSP2 at all. But if the consequence of their lack of output is the shutdown that is sad as there is decisions that led to that. "Deserve" I'm sorry they insulted you personally to have such hate for your fellow humans for (check's notes) not making another game...

[@kukipett]

Well this is how industry evolves, i have seen in a video about cars history that in US there was about 2000 makers untill the mid 20th century and how much are left now! Big ones swallow the little ones, digest them and sh.t the residues.

[@geehammer1511]

Yeah, look at how many car companies are owned by Volkswagon. No shame just greed.

[@wbstaple8387]

Guess the unscrupulous companies have seen the gamer scams on Kickstarter and wanted some of that sweet sweet action for themselves. Just call it infinite early access and if anyone complains point to Star Citizen and say "See, we're not scamming you". Glad I decided to wait on KSP2 even though the trailer was top notch.

[@DeathRoll]

Soon we started to get suits I’m gaming was the beginning of the end. I love small creative studios. I wish the big slimy greedy hands would leave them be.

[@pyopyonyo3222]

Well amazing, so many studios shut down, 10k people laid off while execs get hundred of millions in bonuses. This crash needs to come, CEOs need to loose their jobs because it is insanity at this point.

[@trivalentclan-mizar9591]

CEO of EA got fired and hired by unity and fired again. Sure he made a lot of money.

[@Michael-eb8nf]

I'm really hoping wisdom is gained by this dark era of gaming. When you have great talents and promising projects, then get approached by some corporation with acquisition on its mind, you tell them to kick rocks. It's not a tough choice. Trading stability for the near grauruntee that they cut your studios' throat within a few years is not the way to go, I'm crossing my fingers that every time this happens it acts as a cautionary tale for everyone witnessing it.

[@Buzzdog1971]

Take Two is a publicly traded company that answers to it's share holders. The main failure on the part of Take Two was the decision to put Nate in charge. Nate Simpson is the living embodiment of The Peter Principal. Nate is not qualified to work the counter at Starbucks let alone run a game development studio.

[@SpottedHares]

I mean it’s the same math we see with other entertainment products. X money in y money out, but their are very clearly some that have a high rate of return, so cut the studios dump more money into those high retina and get more money. That how you get films with a 300m dollar budget, and what 5 studios working on COD at this point. Of course throwing twice as much money at you big earned hasn’t doubled the money back.

[@michaelmcnally9737]

If only game devs had some sort of guild, some way to unite and protect their collective interests. If only we had hundreds of years of labor movements to learn from.

[@rasembers1831]

genuinely the game industry is sickening with all this bs theyre buying companies to dissolve them and their competition

[@SlavTiger]

Making slop the only option won't make us buy slop, it will only make the market itself crash.

[@KrazyKaiser]

This is just another example of why we need more unions in the gaming industry.

[@L1vv4n]

Such a nice thing that, thanks to Sony, I just learned how to block publishers in steam. To be honest, at this point it might be make sense to have them all blocked by default and only create whitelist.

[@LilyBoinks]

i feel like selling your IP to take-two is a bit like leaving your child at the jonestown daycare centre.

[@Septulum]

Viability be damned, gotta maximise the shareholder dividends.

[@RpattoYT]

😂 Funny if KSP2 were a viable product. It's been in hell for too long. Viable or not now, too little too late.

[@vinny9854]

I’m pretty sure most of these closures are from the publishers not being able to mindlessly monetize certain good games with micro transactions

[@zuzoscorner]

CEO meanwhiel has golden parachute on thiere way out while the devs get shafted.

[@SkorjOlafsen]

KSP2 and The Pale Beyond launched the same day. Who bet that Bellular Studios would have the better outcome? Nicely done, guys, looking forward to the next one.

[@matthewrosborough2705]

why is the only option in making games to starve doing your own thing, or get fired doing it for some one else? like how did it get to this

[@rd-um4sp]

T2: gonna crush the soul out of developers today! MS: Oh, kids and your childish games. Let me show you how it is done!

[@sahara8771]

So obviously I'm not in favor of publishers in general, but I do think KSP 2 is one of the rare cases where the developers were the problem. It being a worse game despite the development time allowed for it. They were given 3 years (or more, depending on when you want to start counting) and they didn't even build the one thing that every fan of the first game wanted: a functional physics system that doesn't run like shit. And they, personally, promised so many things and outright lied about the status of the game so many times, I have a hard time blaming Take Two for KSP 2. Take Two didn't make those trailers, Take Two didn't tell us that the kraken was gone, that multiplayer was working, and that all those promised features were just around the corner. Are major publishers like Take Two ruining the industry? Yes. Was KSP 2 Take Two's fault? I don't think so.

[@okankyoto]

It was originally 3 years, aiming for a complete game release in 2020. Obviously that didn't happen and now we've had a rolling early access... totaling about 7 years. And STILL not able to even match the original features, while reusing large amounts of the original code in order to get anything shipped at all. Which defeats the whole reason to make the sequel in a more robust engine... and then on top of it all the early access is more than twice what the original sold for and very high for an EA game.

[@mastah39]

An internal publisher owned studio. They gave them a box of scrap and a cave and told them to make an IronMan suit. It's 100% the publisher fault. Always. They hired the leads, and allocated the budget to hire the devs. They can also fire problematic people before it becomes an unfixable situation. But that wasn't the problem here, Hi-Fi rush and Rollerdome studios prove that nothing here was about the performance of said studios, just reaching a % layoff quota.

[@trivalentclan-mizar9591]

Take Two undermined the original developer and took over KSP2 in a series of moves that were barely legal. Read Bloomberg story on it.

[@Ramschat]

I'm glad I saw the warning signs and decided to hold out on buying KSP 2 until it would have all the features (including multiplayer) rather than trusting the new corporate owners to deliver what was promised

[@ketrotenderfoot9007]

the problem is not that they got awards or made money....they didn't make ALL THE MONEY, greed will destroy all

[@royconestoga7326]

When you let corpos write off massive losses, you’re going to have this behavior.

[@quantumtheo]

I remember playing the KSP betas for hours and hours a dozen years ago.... it is so sad what has happened to the IP.

[@michaels.3709]

Uber Entertainment also did Planetary Annihilation, which under-delivered and disappointed fans back in 2014. The roadmap shrunk, updates were buggy, some promised features were dropped, and they started a new crowd funding campaign for a different game before PA had reached a point where it felt complete. I didn't realize KSP2 was being developed by the same folks at first. If I had known, I probably would have never let myself buy into the hype after that trailer dropped, (it was an *incredible* trailer, to be fair though).

[@PyrateGraphics]

Is there any place to buy a fully modded version of KSP1

[@BlogingLP]

What is about the Games of Roll7? Are they gonna shuttered too or are they going to stay on Steam?

[@speedcreep2605]

Man, I hope there's a class action lawsuit over Kerbal. I don't hope to get anything out of it, I just want Take 2 to lose something.

[@shodanargie1574]

THE ROLLERDROME DEVS ARE DEAD? NOOOOOOO

[@OctagonalSquare]

Well looks like I need to change my KSP2 review. I was pretty generous back when it got its first major update as I trusted that level of improvement would continue but I haven’t had time to check back in on it

[@santi3991]

We need game developers to join forces and found a publisher studio where they have the control and not the suits higher up.

[@corwyncorey3703]

The only way to gain security and stability in the industry is to stay independent, suffer through the lean times, stay independent, make something great, and did I mention *STAY INDEPENDENT* yet? Selling out to a big company is still selling out.

[@free_spirit1]

What do publishers do exactly?

[@monksuu]

And yet another publisher to my do-not-purchase-their-games list... I loved KSP a lot and was waiting for KSP2 to be more mature. Fortunately I didn't buy it yet. RIP kerbals as an IP. :(

[@terratorment2940]

Generally speaking, publicly traded or not, businesses are engaged in some kind of activity that is useful to somebody. They have vendors, employes, and they have customers. Could be something like a grocery store or a graphics card manufacturing company, a pig farm, oil well whatever. The securities market distorts the relationship of the usefulness of the thing with the usefulness of the thing to make profits for shareholders. I genuinely do not care if a local grocery store makes profits for its shareholders. I care that it provides groceries to the community and good fair paying jobs for the community members. In order to provide profits to shareholders, none of the things I describe matter. It can offer an abysmally awful service with horrendous working conditions and still make money for shareholders, at least in the short term. It's entirely possible for a company to deliver profits to its owners and provide nothing useful to anyone. Capital markets distort the relationship of business to human need by rewarding something that has no relationship whatsoever to any human need at all. The measure of success for a business in these markets is the share price and no other feature. We have transformed these businesses which are fundamentally property into a fetish, a magic totem. Businesses that are useful to human beings may or may not have any usefulness to investors or a high share price. But I can tell you if a grocery store closes down, and there are no other grocery stores in that neighborhood, the impact is devastating. The same goes with any other business that does something useful that people like. In this case we're talking about video game companies but it's true in that sense too. Konami retooling into a casino company that makes crappy phone games dishonored the artwork that everyone loved it for in the first place. The same goes with take two shutting down these companies you mentioned

[@KurtFrans]

That's been going on for decades, it's normal, anytime you hear about acquisitions and mergers that's a sign unless there's a really good reason for it. As for devs and content creators going onto new projects or the next one after doing work on one already that's nothing new either. It's like a plumber, once the leak is fixed he's onto the next job, that's how it goes. Keep movin on keep on truckin.

[@baronvonschnellenstein2811]

~2:09 - In the 1990s/2000s there was a magazine, Total Football, which had a section, "Total Bollox". Take2 > Private Division's statement here vs the fate of Roll7 would have made the "Total Bollox" section of that magazine 😂