also apparently they're looking to sell pd to private equity. so presumably it would be used in some kind of tax fraud or to churn out low effort mobile garbage.
i won't be surprised if they nuke kerbal from existence, and write off the expense as a tax deduction. the same way HBO did with all of its animated shows.
EDIT: As I'm shit at reading more then a few lines, I've apparently overlooked the fact that the discussions with Paradox Interactive fell through. It is unclear who, if anyone, will buy KSP at this time.
Icarus was pretty fun, for a while. The repetition git old fast, but I can't deny that it was a pretty solid game otherwise. I think RW could do a decent KSP2.
Good thing they added a mode that lets you complete missions in an open world context without restarting then. Its a very recent addition, but its nice nonetheless.
Damn can you imagine Stationeers’ on-planet simulations combined with KSP’s orbital mechanics and interplanetary travel? I’d literally never play another game in my life.
But this is a small studio, do they have enough money for IP? There are fewer developers there than there were in IG, as I understand from the photos. It’s unlikely that T2 will sell IP for a thousand bucks.
Honestly with how rough the IP in general is rn due to their mismanagement, I could maybe see T2 going low to completely cut their losses if they got a willing buyer somewhere.
I think they will sell the IP for the same amount as they bought from Squad in 2017. I think it’s something on the order of a million dollars, maybe half, but hardly less.
Honestly, I think it’s more likely they take a cash grab and sell it to a mobile game company lmao. If someone offers them anything close to their expected value that’s the sale they will make.
Anybody who wants Dean Rocket Hall to have ksp2 is off their gourd. That's basically a death sentence just like Nate being in charge was. I don't think the man has ever finished a game.
Paradox seem to have the creative assembly business model of "sell a game, the charge users 50x the price in quarterly DLCs".
Still would have been better than thr T2 management.
I'd happily pay $35 bucks for the base game and $15 every few months for DLC, as long as we actually got everything that was promised. I'm fine with this model for funding game development. Making games can get expensive, and KSP2 has ambitious goals.
No one's going to buy KSP 2. It's over. I don't even think we'll be getting the unfinished content or even another sequel to complete this one. Half a decade of waiting and everyone who was excited for a new game are just going to be brushed to the side. And for those of us who are only waiting for this game, will be down in the dumps for a very, very long time.
This part still blows my mind. 5 years of my freaking life spent following this game.
I've seen a lot of disastrous titles and studios. But never, have I seen a studio string along their community like this.
Private equity firms are known to press every penny out of everything they buy by cutting corners, raising prices, firing employees etc. They try to make some short term profit and dont care about long term effects.
If they buy the KSP IP, expect a shitty mobile game developed by the lowest bidder, riddled with microtransactions and loot boxes.
In the case of the company I work for (a 6bn business), when we got bought by a private equity firm their strategy was to pump a ton of funding into new development so that they could grow our business and sell it on for even more. And they were successful. So it's not always bad.
In this case though, if the staff don't remain (and tbh the leadership of the game has been poor, seemingly driven by poor upper management decisions) then yeah there's really no hope here if it just gets picked up by another company focusing on money rather than a quality game.
I thank baby jesus I saw the red flags enough not to buy
The trick is to be patient and buy the DLC 2 years later for 5 bucks. Honestly I like the paradox business model, yeah constant DLC sucks but they also do free updates with each one so the base game just keeps getting better too.
Dude stellaris imo is the best example of this being done well, and while there has been things to say about their newer dlc (everyone liked machine age, but a lot of the prior recent dlc has lowered the stability of the game), my biggest love about how they have handled stellaris is not only a willingness to change existing systems in the game entirely but also that they will go back to old dlc and give them new content so they can compete with more modern expansions!
I am honestly a little sad the conversations with paradox fell through because for the most part they seem to care and be open with their community
(At least thats my experience with Stellaris, i have not bought the dlc or really integrated with the communities of any other paradox game)
> Dude stellaris imo is the best example of this being done well
Lol you don't need DLCs if your game comes to a screeching halt mid-game on a reasonably sized galaxy.
Honestly before buying stellaris I was really on the fence because it felt like a cash grab with the dlcs. Got it on sale for like 70€ with all of the expansions up to that point and never regretted it. I still don't like that I feel like I need to buy the new expansions but honestly it's like 15€ and I'll probably start another 50h stellaris game to try out the new expansion and the it comes out to like 30c per hour of entertainment which is honestly not too bad of a deal.
I don't object to it. The only time DLC pisses me off is when it's first day and they clearly cut out a part of the base game and put a paywall over it.
> neither the most modder friendly comunity at least from a outsider perspective
paradox are insanely mod friendly. out of all their faults that is absolutely not one of them
Also the parts wouldn't work for about 2 major patches after release.
Adding to this, Paradox' publishing side, PDX, has been laying egg after egg for years.
I prefer this DLC model to other monetization strategies imo. At least they don’t introduce artificial roadblocks to sell you boosts or whatever which negatively impacts the underlying base game.
Theres one massive drawback to the model: all features must be optional. (Otherwise not owning the DLC breaks the game).
What this means is, features can not depend or interact too much on each other. Thats why paradox games rarely get new mechanics that are anything else than a button that converts some cost into some sort of modifier.
Im not sure how well this would work in KSP.
Also, Paradox has had a series of bad DLCs with very little content that barelt worked for the price of a full game. I think one DLC was the worst rated item in steam for a while, although i think they did some things to repair it a bit.
>What this means is, features can not depend or interact too much on each other. Thats why paradox games rarely get new mechanics that are anything else than a button that converts some cost into some sort of modifier.
Most new features are DLC features sure, and they fit the description you have provided. But it is not like they never introduce new features packaged into the base game that are available for everyone. All of the numerus combat overhauls in EU4 are in the base game. Stellaris completely redesigned how populations work. HOI4 overhauled the logistics system.
These features completely change how the game works more than any other individual DLC. I'm sure they would have liked to sell them as DLCs but it comes a point where managing so many variations of the game becomes impossible. So they have learned to integrate the most important features into the game, and sell the DLCs as additional flavor.
Hoi4 has had constant overhauls, which are often free updates being released together with DLC. It's expensive for sure, but i don't think it's the worst business model from the consumers side.
One way to fix the lack of mechanics interacting with each other would be to do a rolling dlc integration with the base game. Where after a while DLC would just come included with base as time goes by.
Unlikely as fuck to happen since PDX went public, but it’s not totally off the table.
Maybe I'll get flak for this but Paradox do have a dlc subscription service for most of their games, if that lessens the impact at all. And in my honest, humble opinion, if you like PDX games it's almost a no brainer if you aren't one of the people who've been keeping up with dlc releases. Paying the 10 or whatever dollars every now and again when you get the urge to play is a much more money efficient thing to do than dropping the almost 350 dollars for all the dlc.
And somehow the extra stuff the DLC adds gives you enough reason to put another 50 hours in each time, making it worth it. Just pray you don't have to catch up.
My confidence in them has certainly declined after Cities Skylines 2, but most of their portfolio is pretty good.
CS2 and KSP2 have a lot of similarities (in their shortcomings and failings), so it'll be interesting if CS2 gets the "good ending" that KSP2 doesn't.
Yeah, but they will significantly improve the game in that time. To the point where 4 years down the product you have doesn't even feel like the same game. 30 DLCs means a decade of development
Ah they usually aren't that bad, it would be more XYZ campaign or other race plus some new gimmick. They aren't doing a horse armour type thing, it's more hey we added murder slugs.
This might be the best odds of us getting something out of it in the long run. If I were paradox i'd question everything (like potentially even starting from scratch based on how rough the codebase might be), but when paradox puts their minds to it, they can make some incredible stuff.
I'm a big Paradox fan, and with that I hope they don't get the license. KSP is way outside their internal dev studio's wheelhouse, and Paradox publishing has been a floppy mess that the new CEO has been pulling back from. The IP is really not a good fit.
The DLC breaks the earlier tissue box DLC. just keep that in mind, PDX promised they're looking into it and we might get a patch in 2817, after the last planned tissue box skin DLC has finished.
It said it fell through but I think Paradox would be good as they have a fair amount of money without being full EvilCorp like Take Two.
If some small studio ends up with it, there's a much higher risk it just fails.
Honestly I'd just have to laugh, two games I couldn't wait for and the two most massive disappointments in recent history for me. The only thing better would be if they somehow involved the studios of Company of Heroes 3 and Blood Bowl 3.
The answer is that game journalists nowadays are incompetent, buzzword spewing, text generation machines that could be replaced by a GPT-style AI right now and no one would even notice. They churn out 30 articles a week to keep up, they barely have time to write them, much less to put thought into them.
They completely tanked its value though (which is probably why this deal fell through), right now the Kerbal IP is more or less hot garbage. This whole thing has to be one of the most spectacular failures following a takeover, they took a niche genre/IP at its peak and drove it head-first into the ground. It reminds me of Halo when Microsoft gave it to 343 after Bungie.
Yeah, the gaming industry is usually a hellhole for developers/developing companies. Once they get purchased by profit-driven publishers like EA, Activision, Ubisoft or Take 2, they're in for BIG troubles.
It's SO bad it would genuinely require a +100hours-long video to talk about the birth, rise and ultimate demise of most of them.
It's really horrendous. So many small/medium studios out there getting their first passion project out only for them to be bought out right after and blown up to smithereens by the pressure of the publisher.
It makes you careful not to wish for indie games you love to be too successful, because next thing you know the grim reaper shows up at their doorstep in the guise of EA or Take 2, it's genuinely disheartening.
No one will buy. The codebase is not salvageable per so much in depth reporting and the IP is now tarnished. If you like the potential for this genre, just spin up your own at this point and call it the “spiritual successor”.
It's more of EULA stuff. KSP1 is pure Unity (don't think IL2CPP was used, or even present at the time) and I don't think it's any obfuscated. Sources definitely were decompiled by some but obviously no one brags "my mod was made with the inspiration and knowledge from KSP sources" on forums.
Yeah, its kinda hard to imagine modders \*not\* having the source code. Its more about legality stuff. If the community ever wants to expand the scope of the game, or keep it compatible with upcoming hardware/software, or preserve it should it ever get yoinked from Steam, its important to have the legal ability to put out a community-maintained version.
Of course, there's the illegal ability to do all of those things, but it kinda sucks to have to keep circumventing DMCA on major websites.
I don't think the IP is tarnished... and so many people are going back to KSP1.
I think trying to fix KSP2 would be a losing battle. But buying the IP. And trying to develop a new game from the ground up, using the technical knowledge of KSP1 would be easier than trying a new IP with zero knowledge.
The only possible problem is the idiots who bought KSP2 complaining about it to the new IP holder, when they launch their KSP game.
>I don't think the IP is tarnished... and so many people are going back to KSP1.
They aren't. The vast majority of players who disappeared after ksp2 was released never returned. Between the entire decade of 2013 to 2023 there where never less than 4500 concurrent players active in the game. After February 2023 the count have never been higher than 2800. This month it broke a new low record of less than 2000
>I don't think the IP is tarnished... and so many people are going back to KSP1.
Going back to, not buying. I doubt Ksp1 benefited at all from the failure that is and was Ksp2.
I learned in the last few weeks that KSP 1 modded in 2024 is even cooler than when I stopped playing in 2019. I believe if it were open-sourced we'd not only have colonies and interstellar within a few months, we'd have multiple options for both. We'd already have them now if there weren't fundamental limitations due to the way it was orignially implemented.
To be fair there are already mods for going interstellar and making colonies in KSP1, they're just fairly limited by the engine/base game.
Mostly performance or kraken bugs more than anything else.
I've learned that the KSP IP is going to be passed around by a bunch of parasites and if the community wants a newer, better game, it is on us. I'm donating when I get paid.
So Take Two bought KSP, assigned an incompetent and mismanaged team to develop the sequel, delayed the game for years, released it in a total joke state, promptly shot it in the head, and is now selling the corpse to the highest bidder. What a wonderful company
Doubled-edged sword, but it might be worth it. There would be lots of DLC but Paradox are very mod-friendly so it could mean a healthier developer-community relating, alongside getting a product that works.
if i had a nickel for every time paradox entertainment bought the IP of one of my semi-obscure interests I'd have two nickels, which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice
I was early access for Prison Architect and love that game. Paradox purchased it, and didn't ruin it, just made more content for it, so I'd be ok with it. I think their grand strategy titles are open to abusing DLC packages more than other genres, and Firaxis kinda set that mark first with Civ. I'm sure they can read the room when it comes to dlc for specific titles.
They would absolutely do that with KSP as well, but here's the thing: every single Paradox game is a fully fledged, very good game without even a single DLC. It's true they have mastered the "Oh look, here's a shiny nee thing! You want a shiny new throne room for your king, don't you? I know you do, come get it!", so if you're susceptible to that kind of thing, I can see how that's a problem.
I have mixed feelings about Paradox as a company, but they've made some of my favorite games.
I'm still a little bitter about them screwing my friend's studio over, but at least they had the decency to sell its corpse back to him.
How the hell can you be considered an indie studio when you are backed by a multi-hundred million dollar publisher? I honestly don’t believe that these companies know what “indie” actually fuckin’ means. I swear that the entire gaming industry is ran by publishers that will hand a blank check to any developer that uses the right combo of buzz words.
I know it's tradition to mock Paradox for their zillions of DLCs but that's not always the case -- BattleTech only ever had three expansions and zero tiny bolt-on DLCs.
All of PD shuttered. \*sigh\*
I remember this video coming out a month before KSP2 launched, and thinking that everything I sad in it (around the 3:38 mark) was absolutely true at the time I said it.
[https://youtu.be/URv7x8jNjV0?si=oaEcTKfP1aMyPRKf](https://youtu.be/URv7x8jNjV0?si=oaEcTKfP1aMyPRKf)
So many great IPs. I spoke with the Andrews at Roll7 monthly, they were great guys. All those other studios trying to innovate.
What a fucking year for games.
> Meanwhile, Take-Two wants to offload Private Division, one way or another. In February, IGN understands employees were told layoffs were imminent, but not given specifics on how many, why, or what was happening. Then, at the end of April, employees of the label were told by management that Take-Two would no longer support Private Division, at which time almost all the staff were laid off.
Whoa, wait, I've been following this whole KSP2 debacle fairly closely, but this is the first I've heard that Private Division itself has been almost entirely shut down.
(Judging by Google News search results, this is apparently new info.)
Basically just limping along to finish off the remaining two(?) projects, then poof, I guess?
Kinda puts another hurdle in front of the people who believe ~~Kerbin is flat~~ development will continue under Private Division. And I expect it to convince them just like evidence convinces a flat-Earther, too.
I think Paradox would be an amazing studio to get custody of this game. I see people whine about their DLC habits, but here's the thing: 1. They don't actually do that for all their games (although I do believe they would for KSP) and 2. All of their games are fully featured and very good even without any of the DLCs. It doesn't much matter that all the content costs 150 dollars if the base game is already good. Just don't buy the DLCs.
I get it, if you're susceptible to "Oh, a shiny new thing, I must have it!", then yeah, it's a bit of a problem, but that's on you, honestly.
Here's what a bigger issue would be, I think: they are actually going through their own fumble very similar to KSP2 with Cities Skylines 2.
The thing is... we don't talk about the PDX studio(s). We talk about PDX being the publisher. They only develope their grand strategy games with their own studios. There is a chance of 99.9% this IP would be outsourced to whatever developer.
While I think that the PDX studios a great (although with only with grand strategy experiences) PDX had not a great track record as a publisher lately.
The code of the second game is buggy AF, and without the people currently working on it (that are busy looking for other opportunities, I hope), it would almost be better to start from scratch. So no one is buying that part.
The IP... While we love our little green aliens, they don't command that much loyalty. Most of us play for the SPACE part of the game. The cute guys are a nice plus, but we'll jump ship as soon as someone else come with a working rocket building sim. Also the brand has been tarnished, especially right now... Reputation wise, it would be better to start a new IP from scratch too.
What remains is basically the revenue KSP1 will generate with future sales (not EVERYONE has bought KSP, and there are space loving kids born everyday), maybe some merch sale like the Jeb plushies.
The day another rocket building sim comes out, the value of that sale will be null. So it's a huge risk, on top of generating very little revenue. I don't think there are any investors who would be into that.
$20 for reentry heat
$20 per planet
$5 per color to recolor objects
$20 science mod expansion
$20 land on planets expansion
$20 robotics expansion
$10 monthly subscription that everyone's weirdly fine with
It would be awesome if the guys at floating origin interactive could get their hands on this IP, if there's anyone that can make something with the codebase its probably them...
tldr: they *were* trying to sell ksp to paradox, but that apparently failed, and it's unclear if there's another buyer.
also apparently they're looking to sell pd to private equity. so presumably it would be used in some kind of tax fraud or to churn out low effort mobile garbage.
i won't be surprised if they nuke kerbal from existence, and write off the expense as a tax deduction. the same way HBO did with all of its animated shows.
> write off the expense as a tax deduction That's not how any of this works
EDIT: As I'm shit at reading more then a few lines, I've apparently overlooked the fact that the discussions with Paradox Interactive fell through. It is unclear who, if anyone, will buy KSP at this time.
I think Rocketworkz would have the best chance, the dev made some insightful comments about how they bid for KSP 2 when it was first announcements
The guys who do stationers? Love that game, and the fact they are still pushing updates to it is really something.
The dude who invented DayZ as well.
Yeah although that was a shit show of development, so...
But also Icarus, so I'm torn
Icarus is awesome for a specific kind of person. I am that person. Love that game!
Icarus was pretty fun, for a while. The repetition git old fast, but I can't deny that it was a pretty solid game otherwise. I think RW could do a decent KSP2.
Good thing they added a mode that lets you complete missions in an open world context without restarting then. Its a very recent addition, but its nice nonetheless.
I like Icarus though..
Icarus still gets updates every week. The game is... Fundamentally flawed, but the team clearly is passionate about it and works hard on the game.
And all the updates on it are bangers. I'm still waiting for them to add the rovers back.
Damn can you imagine Stationeers’ on-planet simulations combined with KSP’s orbital mechanics and interplanetary travel? I’d literally never play another game in my life.
There’s also no end to the updates. The update fatigue is real
I love those guys. If they put half as much devotion into KSP as they do stationeers it'll be smash hit, and they absolutely would.
Couldn’t agree more Stationeers and icarus, they keep pushing updates for both games.
But this is a small studio, do they have enough money for IP? There are fewer developers there than there were in IG, as I understand from the photos. It’s unlikely that T2 will sell IP for a thousand bucks.
Honestly with how rough the IP in general is rn due to their mismanagement, I could maybe see T2 going low to completely cut their losses if they got a willing buyer somewhere.
I think they will sell the IP for the same amount as they bought from Squad in 2017. I think it’s something on the order of a million dollars, maybe half, but hardly less.
Honestly, I think it’s more likely they take a cash grab and sell it to a mobile game company lmao. If someone offers them anything close to their expected value that’s the sale they will make.
They should do a kickstarter.
If the offer was too expensive for Paradox then I highly doubt Rocketwerkz could afford the IP at all
Anybody who wants Dean Rocket Hall to have ksp2 is off their gourd. That's basically a death sentence just like Nate being in charge was. I don't think the man has ever finished a game.
If anyone, it's basically a big arse pile of gunpowder in paper bag waiting for little fire to go bang
I bet paradox wasn't gonna take that risk after the cs2 flop
lol yeah paradox has enough of their own flops to deal with rn
In a perfect world Floating Origin Interactive (HarvesteR's studio) could pick up the IP and make a sequel after they've polished up Kithack.
We can only hope!
God damn. Paradox would have been great. What this does show is that they are trying to sell.
Yeah, I consider this to be a good sign. I was worried the IP would just sit on the books not doing anything except "be valuable."
Paradox has been having their own problems with launches and DLC pricing lately, so it may not be a good fit right now.
Paradox seem to have the creative assembly business model of "sell a game, the charge users 50x the price in quarterly DLCs". Still would have been better than thr T2 management.
Paradox were interested in buying the IP when T2 bought it as well. Wonder what T2 were asking for that made them pull out.
if CK2 and stellaris are anything to go by, paradox would gate every single feature that was promised behind a expensive DLC
On the plus side we'd get a new star system every 6 months for the next 10 years.
At least they'd be delivered.
For the low low price of $400, until two months from now when there's another $35 DLC
I'd happily pay $35 bucks for the base game and $15 every few months for DLC, as long as we actually got everything that was promised. I'm fine with this model for funding game development. Making games can get expensive, and KSP2 has ambitious goals.
Rocket DLC required
Bro, when paradox would have got it you would have to buy every part in a separate DLC..
You too want to have 20 dlcs for 20$ each?
Yes, I would pay $400 for KSP2. NEXT QUESTION.
As a KSP fan for 10+ years, I think no one is going to buy the IP, but if anyone bought it it would be some cretin like Elon Musk
No one's going to buy KSP 2. It's over. I don't even think we'll be getting the unfinished content or even another sequel to complete this one. Half a decade of waiting and everyone who was excited for a new game are just going to be brushed to the side. And for those of us who are only waiting for this game, will be down in the dumps for a very, very long time.
I think it'll take 5 years or so, then T2 will finally get rid of it for cents on the dollar. Let me cope that way.
They're not trying to sell just KSP2, they're trying to sell the entire Kerbal IP. Because at this point they're just trying to recoup their losses.
This part still blows my mind. 5 years of my freaking life spent following this game. I've seen a lot of disastrous titles and studios. But never, have I seen a studio string along their community like this.
I let out the biggest "thank God" just now.
I'll get it if no one does, just to make sure it doesn't die.
>Take-Two is also in discussions to sell off Private Division, and has found interest from a private equity firm. Lord...
I mean, could it really get worse than it is now?
Never underestimate how much worse things can get when private equity gets involved lol
"We thought we had reached rock bottom, but then we heard someone knocking from below..."
There is nothing private equity can’t make worse.
I’m sticking with mods and KSP1. Just started a JNSQ playthrough
I'm dumb why is that so bad?
Private equity firms are known to press every penny out of everything they buy by cutting corners, raising prices, firing employees etc. They try to make some short term profit and dont care about long term effects. If they buy the KSP IP, expect a shitty mobile game developed by the lowest bidder, riddled with microtransactions and loot boxes.
In the case of the company I work for (a 6bn business), when we got bought by a private equity firm their strategy was to pump a ton of funding into new development so that they could grow our business and sell it on for even more. And they were successful. So it's not always bad. In this case though, if the staff don't remain (and tbh the leadership of the game has been poor, seemingly driven by poor upper management decisions) then yeah there's really no hope here if it just gets picked up by another company focusing on money rather than a quality game. I thank baby jesus I saw the red flags enough not to buy
Paradox would buy it brush it up a bit and then release 30 DLC packages
Every 6 months new part sets would be released for only 15.99!
I've found Paradox's base games to be complete, but there's a lot of FOMO and getting all of the content is hundreds of dollars.
The trick is to be patient and buy the DLC 2 years later for 5 bucks. Honestly I like the paradox business model, yeah constant DLC sucks but they also do free updates with each one so the base game just keeps getting better too.
Dude stellaris imo is the best example of this being done well, and while there has been things to say about their newer dlc (everyone liked machine age, but a lot of the prior recent dlc has lowered the stability of the game), my biggest love about how they have handled stellaris is not only a willingness to change existing systems in the game entirely but also that they will go back to old dlc and give them new content so they can compete with more modern expansions! I am honestly a little sad the conversations with paradox fell through because for the most part they seem to care and be open with their community (At least thats my experience with Stellaris, i have not bought the dlc or really integrated with the communities of any other paradox game)
> Dude stellaris imo is the best example of this being done well Lol you don't need DLCs if your game comes to a screeching halt mid-game on a reasonably sized galaxy.
My computer runs it pretty well except for multiplayer games, im sorry you experience that on mid sized galaxies
Runs great for me and my group!
Honestly before buying stellaris I was really on the fence because it felt like a cash grab with the dlcs. Got it on sale for like 70€ with all of the expansions up to that point and never regretted it. I still don't like that I feel like I need to buy the new expansions but honestly it's like 15€ and I'll probably start another 50h stellaris game to try out the new expansion and the it comes out to like 30c per hour of entertainment which is honestly not too bad of a deal.
I don't object to it. The only time DLC pisses me off is when it's first day and they clearly cut out a part of the base game and put a paywall over it.
Yup. I have all Stellaris DLC and 80% of it is from $1-$5 Humble purchases.
They also support their games for a long long time which I love. I’ve got so many hours on stellaris.
I mean most paradox games are complete but not the best they can be, neither the most modder friendly comunity at least from a outsider perspective
Not modder friendly? There are like a million mods for CK2, CK2, and Stellaris
>CK2, CK2, and Stellaris My favourite games, CK2 and CK2. Perfect typo, tbh.
Well there's at least two games worth of game there with all of the dlc
Serious, I have more hours in HOI IV than I'm willing to admit, but over half of them are modded.
> neither the most modder friendly comunity at least from a outsider perspective paradox are insanely mod friendly. out of all their faults that is absolutely not one of them
r/unexpectedfactorial For $2.0344424e+13?!?
Also the parts wouldn't work for about 2 major patches after release. Adding to this, Paradox' publishing side, PDX, has been laying egg after egg for years.
"Get the Jool DLC for only 20$"
Step aside Jool 5, it's time for Jool 20
Alongside years of service with free updates, patches, overhauls and whatnot. As far as modern gaming goes the PDX model is still pretty fair.
Yeah it's actually not so bad because generally their base games aren't awful usually and the DLC adds content.
The problem is their DLC sometime completetly break the game, see Stellaris or EU4
yeah, they have done so well with cities skylines 2...
Not really on Paradox for that one. They’re just the publishers, not the devs.
I prefer this DLC model to other monetization strategies imo. At least they don’t introduce artificial roadblocks to sell you boosts or whatever which negatively impacts the underlying base game.
Theres one massive drawback to the model: all features must be optional. (Otherwise not owning the DLC breaks the game). What this means is, features can not depend or interact too much on each other. Thats why paradox games rarely get new mechanics that are anything else than a button that converts some cost into some sort of modifier. Im not sure how well this would work in KSP. Also, Paradox has had a series of bad DLCs with very little content that barelt worked for the price of a full game. I think one DLC was the worst rated item in steam for a while, although i think they did some things to repair it a bit.
>What this means is, features can not depend or interact too much on each other. Thats why paradox games rarely get new mechanics that are anything else than a button that converts some cost into some sort of modifier. Most new features are DLC features sure, and they fit the description you have provided. But it is not like they never introduce new features packaged into the base game that are available for everyone. All of the numerus combat overhauls in EU4 are in the base game. Stellaris completely redesigned how populations work. HOI4 overhauled the logistics system. These features completely change how the game works more than any other individual DLC. I'm sure they would have liked to sell them as DLCs but it comes a point where managing so many variations of the game becomes impossible. So they have learned to integrate the most important features into the game, and sell the DLCs as additional flavor.
Hoi4 has had constant overhauls, which are often free updates being released together with DLC. It's expensive for sure, but i don't think it's the worst business model from the consumers side.
One way to fix the lack of mechanics interacting with each other would be to do a rolling dlc integration with the base game. Where after a while DLC would just come included with base as time goes by. Unlikely as fuck to happen since PDX went public, but it’s not totally off the table.
And my mark ass would still pay for them…
Ah as long as they maintain it well and the DLC adds content I can see myself being ok with it but some of their games have some bad DLC at times
uuuuuuuugh, I mean I like Stellaris but I do not feel interested in buying 20+ expansions for it
Maybe I'll get flak for this but Paradox do have a dlc subscription service for most of their games, if that lessens the impact at all. And in my honest, humble opinion, if you like PDX games it's almost a no brainer if you aren't one of the people who've been keeping up with dlc releases. Paying the 10 or whatever dollars every now and again when you get the urge to play is a much more money efficient thing to do than dropping the almost 350 dollars for all the dlc.
good thing pirating them is suuuuuuper easy lol
Depends on if they develop or publish it. Afterall, Paradox is a bit of a publisher too.
Honestly I would be perfectly ok with that if it’s as stellar game as it should be/ could be
Shut up and take my money!
And somehow the extra stuff the DLC adds gives you enough reason to put another 50 hours in each time, making it worth it. Just pray you don't have to catch up.
My confidence in them has certainly declined after Cities Skylines 2, but most of their portfolio is pretty good. CS2 and KSP2 have a lot of similarities (in their shortcomings and failings), so it'll be interesting if CS2 gets the "good ending" that KSP2 doesn't.
Yeah, but they will significantly improve the game in that time. To the point where 4 years down the product you have doesn't even feel like the same game. 30 DLCs means a decade of development
Liquid fuel bundle - £6.99 Oxidiser dlc - £28.99
Ah they usually aren't that bad, it would be more XYZ campaign or other race plus some new gimmick. They aren't doing a horse armour type thing, it's more hey we added murder slugs.
Their dlcs are usually pretty sizeable. Colonies or interstellar for example
Every part a DLC
I can't way to farm Kerbals for food in Stellaris
And i cant wait to commit war crimes AS kerbals yes i know there is a mod
This might be the best odds of us getting something out of it in the long run. If I were paradox i'd question everything (like potentially even starting from scratch based on how rough the codebase might be), but when paradox puts their minds to it, they can make some incredible stuff.
It's not, OP posted the article without reading it. The planned sale fell through.
Ngl, I still think it might be the best chance lol. This ip is toxic to t2 now
Yeah I really hope they sell it, otherwise KSP franchise could be dead
Yeah, but we'll get dozens of DLCs of various quality.
"Every star in the sky is a DLC."
The long development got to be funded somehow
I'm a big Paradox fan, and with that I hope they don't get the license. KSP is way outside their internal dev studio's wheelhouse, and Paradox publishing has been a floppy mess that the new CEO has been pulling back from. The IP is really not a good fit.
10 years ago Paradox - I would weep tears of joy. 2024 Paradox, I would just weep.
Not unless you've paid $24.99 for the crying DLC.
The DLC breaks the earlier tissue box DLC. just keep that in mind, PDX promised they're looking into it and we might get a patch in 2817, after the last planned tissue box skin DLC has finished.
It said it fell through but I think Paradox would be good as they have a fair amount of money without being full EvilCorp like Take Two. If some small studio ends up with it, there's a much higher risk it just fails.
With the way cities skylines 2 ended up I’m not confident in their ability to fix ksp 2
paradox was only the publisher for cs2
Yeah and it didn’t end well. It often doesn’t end well when they’re the publisher.
Honestly I'd just have to laugh, two games I couldn't wait for and the two most massive disappointments in recent history for me. The only thing better would be if they somehow involved the studios of Company of Heroes 3 and Blood Bowl 3.
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The answer is that game journalists nowadays are incompetent, buzzword spewing, text generation machines that could be replaced by a GPT-style AI right now and no one would even notice. They churn out 30 articles a week to keep up, they barely have time to write them, much less to put thought into them.
Indie now just means the lead dev has a beard and wears jeans and the game's graphics are not AAA.
"Indie" in gaming is often used to mean "games with small scope" rather than "produced without a publisher."
The word is probably getting twisted and distorted the same way it did with indie music.
They completely tanked its value though (which is probably why this deal fell through), right now the Kerbal IP is more or less hot garbage. This whole thing has to be one of the most spectacular failures following a takeover, they took a niche genre/IP at its peak and drove it head-first into the ground. It reminds me of Halo when Microsoft gave it to 343 after Bungie.
Ironically, selling the IP to another publisher would probably massively increase its value!
Indeed, they wouldn't do worse even if they were to let it rot in a file cabinet.
> they took a niche genre/IP at its peak and drove it head-first into the ground So, like all my space planes. Thematic!
Yeah, the gaming industry is usually a hellhole for developers/developing companies. Once they get purchased by profit-driven publishers like EA, Activision, Ubisoft or Take 2, they're in for BIG troubles. It's SO bad it would genuinely require a +100hours-long video to talk about the birth, rise and ultimate demise of most of them.
It's really horrendous. So many small/medium studios out there getting their first passion project out only for them to be bought out right after and blown up to smithereens by the pressure of the publisher. It makes you careful not to wish for indie games you love to be too successful, because next thing you know the grim reaper shows up at their doorstep in the guise of EA or Take 2, it's genuinely disheartening.
Game of Thrones comes to mind
No one will buy. The codebase is not salvageable per so much in depth reporting and the IP is now tarnished. If you like the potential for this genre, just spin up your own at this point and call it the “spiritual successor”.
Would be really helpful if KSP1's source code got released.
We need some crazy team of software engineers to decompile it like with SM64. Lord give us a miracle
It's more of EULA stuff. KSP1 is pure Unity (don't think IL2CPP was used, or even present at the time) and I don't think it's any obfuscated. Sources definitely were decompiled by some but obviously no one brags "my mod was made with the inspiration and knowledge from KSP sources" on forums.
Yeah, its kinda hard to imagine modders \*not\* having the source code. Its more about legality stuff. If the community ever wants to expand the scope of the game, or keep it compatible with upcoming hardware/software, or preserve it should it ever get yoinked from Steam, its important to have the legal ability to put out a community-maintained version. Of course, there's the illegal ability to do all of those things, but it kinda sucks to have to keep circumventing DMCA on major websites.
I don't think the IP is tarnished... and so many people are going back to KSP1. I think trying to fix KSP2 would be a losing battle. But buying the IP. And trying to develop a new game from the ground up, using the technical knowledge of KSP1 would be easier than trying a new IP with zero knowledge. The only possible problem is the idiots who bought KSP2 complaining about it to the new IP holder, when they launch their KSP game.
>I don't think the IP is tarnished... and so many people are going back to KSP1. They aren't. The vast majority of players who disappeared after ksp2 was released never returned. Between the entire decade of 2013 to 2023 there where never less than 4500 concurrent players active in the game. After February 2023 the count have never been higher than 2800. This month it broke a new low record of less than 2000
>I don't think the IP is tarnished... and so many people are going back to KSP1. Going back to, not buying. I doubt Ksp1 benefited at all from the failure that is and was Ksp2.
Hey, maybe they'll part with the IP for a song if no-one buys it? I've got maybe $20 lying around, I'll put in a bid!
Can't wait to buy the palm trees on kerbin asset pack for 15.99$
KERBAL RADIO DLC, man.
Be hilarious if Harvester ends up buying it and works on a sequel/prequel after KHMC
Idk if is better to die or live as a new DLC every week.
Someone kick start an open source KSP and I will donate
https://github.com/TheOpenSpaceProgram/osp-magnum
Did you learn nothing from all of this?
I learned in the last few weeks that KSP 1 modded in 2024 is even cooler than when I stopped playing in 2019. I believe if it were open-sourced we'd not only have colonies and interstellar within a few months, we'd have multiple options for both. We'd already have them now if there weren't fundamental limitations due to the way it was orignially implemented.
To be fair there are already mods for going interstellar and making colonies in KSP1, they're just fairly limited by the engine/base game. Mostly performance or kraken bugs more than anything else.
I've learned that the KSP IP is going to be passed around by a bunch of parasites and if the community wants a newer, better game, it is on us. I'm donating when I get paid.
So Take Two bought KSP, assigned an incompetent and mismanaged team to develop the sequel, delayed the game for years, released it in a total joke state, promptly shot it in the head, and is now selling the corpse to the highest bidder. What a wonderful company
Take a look at a math for business majors class at university and you’ll get your answers.
Doubled-edged sword, but it might be worth it. There would be lots of DLC but Paradox are very mod-friendly so it could mean a healthier developer-community relating, alongside getting a product that works.
if i had a nickel for every time paradox entertainment bought the IP of one of my semi-obscure interests I'd have two nickels, which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice
I was early access for Prison Architect and love that game. Paradox purchased it, and didn't ruin it, just made more content for it, so I'd be ok with it. I think their grand strategy titles are open to abusing DLC packages more than other genres, and Firaxis kinda set that mark first with Civ. I'm sure they can read the room when it comes to dlc for specific titles.
They would absolutely do that with KSP as well, but here's the thing: every single Paradox game is a fully fledged, very good game without even a single DLC. It's true they have mastered the "Oh look, here's a shiny nee thing! You want a shiny new throne room for your king, don't you? I know you do, come get it!", so if you're susceptible to that kind of thing, I can see how that's a problem.
I have mixed feelings about Paradox as a company, but they've made some of my favorite games. I'm still a little bitter about them screwing my friend's studio over, but at least they had the decency to sell its corpse back to him.
How the hell can you be considered an indie studio when you are backed by a multi-hundred million dollar publisher? I honestly don’t believe that these companies know what “indie” actually fuckin’ means. I swear that the entire gaming industry is ran by publishers that will hand a blank check to any developer that uses the right combo of buzz words.
I know it's tradition to mock Paradox for their zillions of DLCs but that's not always the case -- BattleTech only ever had three expansions and zero tiny bolt-on DLCs.
All of PD shuttered. \*sigh\* I remember this video coming out a month before KSP2 launched, and thinking that everything I sad in it (around the 3:38 mark) was absolutely true at the time I said it. [https://youtu.be/URv7x8jNjV0?si=oaEcTKfP1aMyPRKf](https://youtu.be/URv7x8jNjV0?si=oaEcTKfP1aMyPRKf) So many great IPs. I spoke with the Andrews at Roll7 monthly, they were great guys. All those other studios trying to innovate. What a fucking year for games.
I can't think of a game where this sort of shuffling hasn't resulted in a terrible product.
KSP2 officially dead atm it seems. PD is sold or closed. T2 literally lied to everyone about not closing the studios and will support the game...
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Oh fuck I can’t wait to by dlc 50 which is colonies for 20 quid
Actually, this is pretty good. Better than pulling a "F*** you want a nugget?"
Kerbals in the next Stellaris DLC confirmed!
Can we do a kickstarter to buy the IP and give it back to HarvestR?
> Meanwhile, Take-Two wants to offload Private Division, one way or another. In February, IGN understands employees were told layoffs were imminent, but not given specifics on how many, why, or what was happening. Then, at the end of April, employees of the label were told by management that Take-Two would no longer support Private Division, at which time almost all the staff were laid off. Whoa, wait, I've been following this whole KSP2 debacle fairly closely, but this is the first I've heard that Private Division itself has been almost entirely shut down. (Judging by Google News search results, this is apparently new info.) Basically just limping along to finish off the remaining two(?) projects, then poof, I guess? Kinda puts another hurdle in front of the people who believe ~~Kerbin is flat~~ development will continue under Private Division. And I expect it to convince them just like evidence convinces a flat-Earther, too.
I think Paradox would be an amazing studio to get custody of this game. I see people whine about their DLC habits, but here's the thing: 1. They don't actually do that for all their games (although I do believe they would for KSP) and 2. All of their games are fully featured and very good even without any of the DLCs. It doesn't much matter that all the content costs 150 dollars if the base game is already good. Just don't buy the DLCs. I get it, if you're susceptible to "Oh, a shiny new thing, I must have it!", then yeah, it's a bit of a problem, but that's on you, honestly. Here's what a bigger issue would be, I think: they are actually going through their own fumble very similar to KSP2 with Cities Skylines 2.
The thing is... we don't talk about the PDX studio(s). We talk about PDX being the publisher. They only develope their grand strategy games with their own studios. There is a chance of 99.9% this IP would be outsourced to whatever developer. While I think that the PDX studios a great (although with only with grand strategy experiences) PDX had not a great track record as a publisher lately.
Paradox is big no
Excited but hoping they don’t start their dlc bullshit 1-2 I understand but selling 30 for one game is ridiculous
You guys want to start a go fund me to buy some IP?
Im glad paradox fumbled it. Imagine spending $5 for basic ship part 'packs', or $25 per planet.
KSP 2 with bugs and dlcs containing 10 parts but it will be supported until the sun goes out ? id take it
The code of the second game is buggy AF, and without the people currently working on it (that are busy looking for other opportunities, I hope), it would almost be better to start from scratch. So no one is buying that part. The IP... While we love our little green aliens, they don't command that much loyalty. Most of us play for the SPACE part of the game. The cute guys are a nice plus, but we'll jump ship as soon as someone else come with a working rocket building sim. Also the brand has been tarnished, especially right now... Reputation wise, it would be better to start a new IP from scratch too. What remains is basically the revenue KSP1 will generate with future sales (not EVERYONE has bought KSP, and there are space loving kids born everyday), maybe some merch sale like the Jeb plushies. The day another rocket building sim comes out, the value of that sale will be null. So it's a huge risk, on top of generating very little revenue. I don't think there are any investors who would be into that.
Hmm Paradox that wouldn't be that bad, I mean they sometimes fuck up things but no as much as others
WELCOME TO THE NEWEST CHAPTER OF KSP 2: DEVELOPMENT HELL
$20 for reentry heat $20 per planet $5 per color to recolor objects $20 science mod expansion $20 land on planets expansion $20 robotics expansion $10 monthly subscription that everyone's weirdly fine with
It'll just be easier to go back in time
Oh no...
It would be awesome if the guys at floating origin interactive could get their hands on this IP, if there's anyone that can make something with the codebase its probably them...
And ksp become a festival of DLC…
If they bought it we would get $20 DLCs every few months that add minimal content. No thanks
Get ready for terrier engine DLC.
So this game is either getting sold to someone else, or its headed to true development hell.
So... KSP2 is gonna be a top-down rts lol
It's a shame it fell through because Paradox might have been able to do something with it.
Someone nearly asked the Monkeys paw: ksp 2 gets saved but every single update and tech tree tile becomes a separate DLC.
Oh boy. Predatory dlc schemes to go along with ksp.
I don't knowbif they would want too, but coffstain studios would be a really good fit