Kerbal 2 space program It was released in February 2023, more than three years ago. The successor to one of the most popular niche indie games ever created, the sequel should have been a hit.
At least that’s what take two He thought when they hired Star Theory Games, whose historical pedigree included, checks notesMonday night fight. A game so far removed from rocket science that I’m sure it had absolutely no relation to what came next.
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It wasn’t like that. To be fair, COVID-19 It happened, uprooting almost all tech jobs in the industry, including game developers. The title was originally scheduled for 2020, and after years of delays and studio reorganizations, what finally arrived in 2023 was anything but interstellar.
Even bringing in Squad, the game’s original developer, couldn’t protect it from the immediate backlash over missing features, rampant (alien) bugs, and abysmal performance. And that inclusion turned out to be something of a lie: Intercept Games had been banned from communicating with Equipment until they finished Kerbal space program 1 in 2021.
Amusingly, when communication occurred, as noted in my piece from last yearThe squad had no idea what to do.
A major update in December 2023 finally brought some life to the game, with content additions, performance updates, and more. But one small step for Kerbal was equivalent to two giant steps, as Take Two would later close. intercept games in mid-2024.
I originally mentioned this story on January 2025just a month or so after Take Two quietly sold the publisher, Private Division and Kerbal Space Program 2 to Annapurna. At the time, there hadn’t been a major content update in over a year, but some hope had been restored given the sale of the franchise.
I am sad to report that since then, the search for life has continued with nothing to show for it. Kerbal Space Program 2 has gone two full years without an update, and Annapurna is still sell the game on Steam as “Early Access” for $50. Yes, $50 for an early access game!
Given the current status of Kerbal Space Program 2 and the lack of updates for two whole yearsthe fact that the game is still selling seems illegal somehow, or at the very least, it should be stopped Steam. I understand that early access comes with warnings and may never reach its full version.
However, the fact that it can still being sold on Steam without an actual update, or even a hint of an update after its sale, is a completely different matter. At that point, releasing the game as an early access title is false advertising. Instead, it’s the headline “I’ll never get another update.”
At the very least, the early access moniker should be revoked. If a company has no public plans to release any updates for two years, it should be stripped of its title.
This doesn’t mean I don’t hope we can one day see Kerbal Space Program 2 given the love it deserves, but for now, it’s time to get this out of the way so people don’t get sucked into the black hole of a gaming graveyard. You cannot continue selling an early access game for $50 that you have not updated or intend to update in the future.
Some would call it intergalactic highway robbery. Sorry, I needed one more pun to make me feel better.
What do you think of the entire Kerbal 2 Space Program? Does this mean there should be tighter restrictions on Steam Early Access? Let us know below, I’m curious what others think about this.
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