Private Division announced that Kerbal Space Program 2 has been delayed, and it will now release for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in fall 2021. This is actually the second of two delays the game has experienced. It seems like this game may be in some serious trouble if it keeps getting pushed back.
The physics-based simulation that spawned this new sequel has found a hardcore fanbase and active modding community, so folks will no doubt be disappointed by this news. Kerbal Space Program itself was also beset by problems. At one point, during the long development of the game, the developers attempted to push a new ToS. Users really didn’t like the idea of giving so much data to Squad. This led to a major review bomb of the game.
Despite this though, the announcement of Kerbal Space Program 2 found some hype. The second game would expand on the formula of creating and managing massive rockets in awesome ways.
This new delay doesn’t appear to be the cause of backend issues though. The first delay that happened was when Take-Two Interactive mandated it. The publisher moved the sequel to the fiscal year of 2021 “in order to allow more time to make the experience as terrific as possible.” Most fans were expecting the game to drop by April 2020, that obviously didn’t happen.
With this delay though, it seems pretty obvious. COVID-19 is definitely to blame here. The issues with remote work slowing development mean that the developer needs more time. It’s very understandable though, as there’s a pandemic going on. With 5.1 million infected with the virus and more than 332,000 dead so far. Considering that it’s an easy decision to make to delay the game.
“With everything going on in the world today due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we’re facing many unique challenges that require more time to safely iterate, create, test, and make KSP2 as great as it can be,” explained publisher Private Division. “We understand this isn’t the news you were hoping to see, but ultimately we need to make the best decision for the development of Kerbal Space Program 2. That said, we will continue to keep you updated with more feature videos, developer blogs, and other content to share our progress from now up to launch.”
