Take-Two Interactive Acquires 'Kerbal Space Program' From Squad

Kerbal Space Program is one of our favorite games, and it shows with the 270 hours we've played it on Steam. The space simulation game puts you in charge of tiny green Kerbals that somehow managed to create their own space exploration program, and it's up to you to create the rockets and shuttles that will bring them to distant worlds. For years, the game was owned by Squad, the same studio that created the game, but now it has a new owner in Take-Two Interactive.

According to Squad’s announcement of the acquisition, it seems that nothing will change under the new owners, at least in the foreseeable future. The team will still honor its promise of free downloadable content for those who bought the game on or before April 2013. The game also relies on the overwhelming amount of mods created by its fans, and according to the announcement post on Reddit, it seems that the game's overall modding support will still be around under the new ownership.

If Take-Two sounds familiar, chances are good that you played one of the many games under its umbrella. This includes the Civilization series, the Grand Theft Auto games, Mafia III, and the XCOM strategy titles. With this latest purchase under its belt, Take-Two’s portfolio of titles continues to increase, and it's not difficult to see why the company bought it from Squad. Take-Two noted that since the game’s 1.0 release in April 2015, over two million units of Kerbal Space Program were sold, and it continues to garner praise, based on user reviews on Steam.

Take-Two did not disclose the overall purchase price for the IP.

Even under new ownership, the team will continue to work on new content for the game. In March, Squad announced that it’s currently working on the game's first expansion, titled Making History. It will include new parts for your custom spacecraft, a mission maker, and the ability to play through some of humanity's landmark moments in spaceflight.

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NameKerbal Space Program
TypeSpace, Simulation
DeveloperSquad
PublisherSquad
PlatformsPC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Where To BuySteam
Release DateApril 27, 2015
  • dstarr3
    Good on Squad for making bank. They don't disclose how much it was purchased for, but I'm sure it was quite a sum of money.

    I hope this means that Take Two will put some effort into manufacturing some merch for the game. I have a 3D-printed Kerbal on my shelf, but the little thing cost a fortune on Shapeways. I'd love some reasonably-priced, authentic Kerbal merch to decorate the office with.
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  • bigdragon
    I hope Squad got a nice payday like other small developers have. They created a great, unconventional game.

    Part of me is excited that a publisher with Take-Two's resources could take KSP to new heights. They could add to and refine the game significantly. However, I also recognize that all of Take-Two's games are DLC-laden, overpriced, second job grindfests. I find myself completely avoiding Take-Two products because they take hundreds if not thousands of hours to get through progression systems. Worse, most modern Take-Two games have DLC that is multiple times the price of the base game. Remember that Take-Two is the parent of 2K and Rockstar. These are the same people responsible for Evolve and GTA Online. I'm not interested in seeing KSP turn into the same sort of high-price, shallow content, grind.
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  • none12345
    I hope this means a kSP 2.

    I want KSP 2 that completely redoes the physics so its well threaded. This is my biggest gripe with the current game, i cant build HUGE things(especially bases/stations) because of the N-body problem. If it was well threaded i could build things with 10 times more parts.

    On top of that, i want a real scale solar system as part of the base game. Doesnt have to stop there tho, add multiple different solar systems in the base game. Could do one with really whacky orbits.

    And revamp the graphics.

    Buncha other little things they could do.

    Gimme that and you have an insta sale for ksp2.
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  • Red_Viper_Martell
    Here's hoping Take Two will have the man power to find and squelch the memory leak problem that KSP has suffered from since 1.0.
    Reply