• nuko147@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        Although Kerbal space program 2 had major issues from the dev team, only for the publisher to pull the plug because of how bad the progress was, and leave the game in permanent early access.

        • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          19 hours ago

          Uh, its more like a new publisher bought the IP, functionally fired almost all of the original dev team, and then hired a bunch of other people who had no idea how their insanely modified version of Unity worked…

          And then the idiot in charge just started spamming out extremely grand and difficult to implement new core functionalities… with a team of mostly newbies who had no idea how anything worked.

          So, basically, they started out where KSP started out… and would very obviously thus need years and years and years to get it out of Early Access / Alpha state… but it needed to make money NOW, and it didn’t, so everyone got laid off (other than the idiot in charge), and the game was functionally abandoned, but not totally abandoned, because MY IP MINE NO YOU CANT HAVE IT!!!

          Or… maybe not? With regard to the IP rights?

          Nobody seems to know who actually owns the KSP IP at this point.

          https://techdriveplay.com/2025/01/03/kerbal-space-program-2-a-tale-of-corporate-neglect-and-failure/

          • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 hour ago

            One of the original goals for KSP2 was the use of a new engine to get rid of the technical debt from the first game that caused issues like the Kraken…but then the publisher forced them to use the KSP engine because “it would speed up development.”

            It was doomed from the beginning.

          • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            I never understood the fixation on IPs. For a kick ass universe with amazing lore etc, ok sure.

            I mean I love Jeb and the gang as much as the next guy, but they’re not core to my enjoyment of KSP1. The mechanics were.

            • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
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              14 hours ago

              Name recognition sells stuff. Somebody who loved KSP 1 will probably give KSP 3 a go, at least to a greater probability than an unrelated game in the same genre.

              • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                11 hours ago

                Dean Hall and RocketWorkz of uh DayZ fame/infamy… are working on Kitten Space Agency… I dunno, maybe they could pull it off?

                Dean’s track record is really hit and miss imo, but hey, at least they actually give a damn and try, often with pretty bold / niche concepts.

            • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              16 hours ago

              lol, RIP Jebs 1 - 48395.

              But uh yeah, the… the lore is basically:

              We made some cute little dudes and dudettes that are… possibly animated, sapient fungi? Or something?

              Anyway they are sm0l and live in sm0l solar system.

              And they have a space program.

              And most of the characters are just obvious cutesy knock offs of famous humans in spaceflight.

              Woo!

              lol

          • cynar@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            It was even worse than that.

            They were basically given the KSP1 codebase and told to rewrite it to be better. However, KSP1 was still being developed, and they didn’t want to demotivate the KSP1 team. Therefore they were banned from even telling them it existed, let alone ask for help or advice with the existing codebase.

    • kautau@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      It’s a canon event for any game company that achieves moderate success gets acquired by investors

      Very much not exclusive to the game industry

        • kautau@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          Makes sense, wasn’t untrue and I wasn’t criticizing, just wanted to make sure everyone remembers that the problem goes up the chain due to capitalism.

          Various companies/games were mentioned in the comments, but I think a good example is Hello Games. Clearly fumbled their game launch and were over ambitious with No Man’s Sky.

          But it’s gotten an incredible amount of things that were promised, and many things that weren’t, all as free updates. Sure, they’re still making money, that’s the point, but instead of Micro-transactions, overpriced DLC, fucking over the devs, shutting things down, they just keep rolling. I’m sure they’ve gotten offers of acquisition that were probably very lucrative, but they didn’t take them, and have continued their slow roll of making gamers happy.

      • TabbsTheBat@pawb.social
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        20 hours ago

        Individual devs seem to generally manage better I think :3. It’s once the companies expand is that stuff starts going awry

        • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          Coffee Stain’s another good example on the bigger end.

          It does seem like there’s a danger zone behind a certain size threshold. It makes me worry for Warhorse (the KCD2 dev), which plans to expand beyond 250.

      • pory@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Didn’t sell out to a company or publisher with shareholder profit motives. Truly independent (not “indie” as slang for low budget) development teams don’t follow this pattern unless they sell their IP and studio outright.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      I think Croteam has been able to have moderate success over the years, but being based in Eastern Europe might make them insulated from issues. Devolver only recently bought them, but they seem to be one of the few good publishers. I at least didn’t see their name on the Video Games Europe member list that’s opposed to SKGs.

    • burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de
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      18 hours ago

      It would make sense for it to be canon in the subnautica universe. I think they were pretty much the epitome of authors with an anvil with the references to economics and governing.