Earlier this week, after a decade of updates and development, the makers of Kerbal Space Program have officially announced that the studio is ceasing sustained development on the game. The studio will now focus on Kerbal Space Program 2.
The original Kerbal Space Program was released all the way back in 2011. When it was first released it was less a game and more of a weird space playset. In KSP, players are able to build and fly (and crash) their own rocket ships using realistic physics. Developer Squad released the first public version of the game on its own website. Over the last decade, the game has been updated dozens and dozens and dozens of times. It’s also been ported to more platforms, including Steam and various consoles.
On August 3, Squad announced on Steam that the latest update for KSP was out. This new 1.12.2 update fixed over 90 bugs and new features like..uh.. “locking functionality to docking node rotations that allows autostruts to cross over docked nodes.” Whatever that means, it’s in the game now.
But Squad also used this Steam announcement to confirm that it will no longer be actively developing KSP.
“Even though we still may release a minor patch here and there when needed,” posted Squad on Steam, “With this patch we are officially completing the 1.12 update, as well as the sustained development of the original KSP, as we are now shifting gears towards the development of KSP2.”
The majority of the comments below the post are positive, celebrating the long life the original game had and sharing excitement over the upcoming sequel.
Kerbal Space Program 2 was announced at Gamescom in 2019. It’s being published by Private Division and will be developed by Squad and Intercept games. It’s expected to release in 2022 after some questionable behind-the-scenes shake-ups and delays.
Until then, you can still buy and play the original game. It might not be getting any more big updates, but odds are you haven’t even made it to the moon yet. Don’t feel bad. I never made it to the moon in KSP either. Maybe now is my chance.