The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a bit of strangulation on a good amount of production around the gaming world. With so many companies now having to move their entire staff, development teams included, on a work from home basis, it’s been a difficult path.
Because of that, we’ve seen a huge number of games delayed and pushed back. We’ve seen indie titles hit hard, as well as massive blockbusters being impacted. Even titles like The Last Of Us were forced into delays by the complications.
Today, the virus claimed another delay. Squad, the developers behind Kerbal Space Program 2, announced that they would have to delay the title by an unknown amount of time, though the team was able to give a rough estimate.
“As yu all know, we’ve been working hard to make the best and most authentic KSP sequel possible,” the team announced via Twitter. “This is an ambitious goal. We are making a big, expansive game loaded with new features, but doing so will take longer than we previously anticipated.”
As of now, the team has announced a new release date to be somewhere in Fall of 2021, a sizeable delay from its original date. The team discusses COVID-19 as the primary reason for the delay, with the impact from the pandemic forcing the team to confront plenty of new challenges.
Heads up Kerbonauts, we've a message from mission control for you.#KSP2 pic.twitter.com/aa1aTEloXG
— Kerbal Space Program (@KerbalSpaceP) May 20, 2020
“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,” the team writes. They go on to promise that they’ll be providing thorough and frequent updates on the development from now until launch.
Ultimately, it’s the most sensible thing to do, as the game needs to be developed in whatever way the developers feel is the best result. Thankfully, much of the community is recognizing this and responding with kindness rather than venom and frustration.
Glancing through the responses to the original tweet, embedded above, shows plenty of support for the developers. Fans are supporting Squad to do what they need to do to keep the game quality and safety of the team at the top priority.
There’s also the possibility that this won’t be the final delay, given that there’s roughly eighteen months until the new release date. As time goes on, we may see it pushed back even further.
Regardless of how far it might be pushed back, it’s fantastic to see the team putting quality before profit. With so many things being delayed and impacted in various ways, all we can hope for is a more seamless development moving forward.
