Kerbal Space Program 2

I track spreadsheets for a living, so when a studio promises colony management, interstellar travel, multiplayer, and a revamped science progression loop in one sequel, I pay close attention to the milestone schedule. With KSP2, I should have paid more attention to the ownership chain. Intercept Games launched this in February 2023 in a state that critics and players alike described as not ready for public sale. Performance was a disaster from day one, the recommended PC specs alarmed a community accustomed to running the original on modest hardware, and bugs that the community had nicknamed "the Kraken" in KSP1 were, if anything, more prevalent in the sequel. Crafts changed flight paths without input, staging lists dropped critical parts in the Vehicle Assembly Building, and rovers fell through planetary surfaces on reload. The physics sandbox that is supposed to reward careful engineering instead punished it arbitrarily. In December 2023, the first substantial roadmap update, titled "For Science!", arrived and added a progression-based Exploration Mode. In it, you earn Science points by conducting experiments across the Kerbol system, unlock new parts at the Research Center, and receive structured objectives via Mission Control rather than staring at a blank sandbox with no direction. The tutorials, which were actually designed with newcomers in mind and move players from basic ascent to orbital mechanics in a reasonable sequence, also received polish. For a window of a few months, the trajectory looked like it might correct itself. The visuals were genuinely improved over the original, the Vehicle Assembly Building's part-snapping system was more satisfying to use, and XL-scale parts opened up construction possibilities the first game never had natively. Then Intercept Games was shut down by Take-Two Interactive in mid-2024. The last update shipped in June 2024. Since then, the game has received no development, no communication, and no credible path to completing any of the headline features, including colonies, interstellar propulsion systems, and multiplayer, that were used to justify its existence as a sequel. Private Division was subsequently sold, and the IP changed hands again. As of mid-2026, the game still sits on Steam in an Early Access listing, frozen at a version that is incomplete by any reasonable measure. For the strategy and sim crowd, the decision tree here is simple. If you have never played Kerbal Space Program, the original with its mature modding ecosystem, including mods that already cover interstellar travel and near-future propulsion, is a far more complete product. If you are a KSP veteran who already bought KSP2, the Exploration Mode gives you a few dozen hours of structured progression before you hit the content wall. If you are considering buying KSP2 today, the honest answer is that you would be purchasing an abandoned early-access build with no developer, no update roadmap, and features that were promised but never delivered. That is not a bet worth placing.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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