In 2011, the very first public version of Kerbal Space Program released online. Now, in 2021, ten years after the game’s original release date, Squad has officially announced the end of Kerbal Space Program’s development has arrived. This news comes from an announcement on KSP’s steam page regarding the most recent patch. The game is now in version 1.12.2 and has added in more than 90 bug fixes, as well as even more content for the game as a cherry on top. One of the major new additions to the game comes in the form of the ground anchor. This is a completely new buildable part which can anchor ships to the ground or even work as a foundation for bases on other planets. At last, the Kerbals can finally settle the stars without worrying about their nifty bases floating away into the endless abyss of space!
How the team formerly known as Squad, original developers of KSP, have been able to keep their game so constantly entertaining for new and old players alike is a testament to their skill and creativity in game design. It’s likely the development team will be bringing everything they’ve learned over the past ten years to Kerbal Space Program 2, which Squad will reportedly be focusing their full efforts on now that the original KSP has ended post-launch development.
Hopefully, this shift in focus can bring some more stability to the development of Squad’s sequel. KSP2 has had to deal with plenty of behind-the-scenes shakeups brought on by some “risky” (AKA scummy) moves from Private Division, the game’s publisher. As Bloomberg reports, Private Division canceled their contract with the original developers of KSP2 before attempting to poach most of the staff at the studio. The game is now being developed by Intercept Games with many of the same team members even after the studio swap. Why they decided to do this is unclear, but hopefully, it won’t put too much stress on the developers or hamper the quality of Kerbal Space Program 2 when it releases.
Kerbal Space Program 2 is (at this time of writing) slated for a 2022 release. You can check out the announcement trailer below.