After nearly a decade of updates, developer Squad is ending sustained development on its spacefaring sim Kerbal Space Program. The developer announced the news in a recent patch, in which the developer stated that it would begin shifting focus on the development of the game’s sequel title Kerbal Space Program 2.
The recent patch fixed various bugs and added the new Ground Anchor, which allows players to anchor vessels to the ground. The team notes that they may still add a few minor patches in the future “as needed,” the latest patch will officially complete the 1.12 update. Below is an excerpt from the official patch notes:
Even though we still may release a minor patch here and there when needed, 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.
This truly marks the end of an era. Squad originally released Kerbal Space Program in 2011 for the PC, before branching out to the PS4 and Xbox One. Outside of major MMORPGs, there are few games that can boast a nearly 10-year record of consistent updates and additional content, on top of a multi-platform and multi-generation release.
On the bright side, it’s nice to know that the original developers of the game are still going to be involved in the upcoming sequel after Take-Two Interactive acquired the franchise in 2017. Subsidiary Private Division is so invested, in fact, that it recently opened up an entirely new studio for the game’s development.
While experiencing a bit of a bump in the road due to the pandemic, the development of the sequel seems to be going well. Private Division recently confirmed that the game will release on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2022.
[Source: Gamasutra]