Recently, Take-Two Interactive announced they will be shuttering the Intercept Games studio. This Washington-based studio was mainly focused on the early-access game Kerbal Space Program 2 (KSP2), a sequel to a much beloved if wacky game. Less than a week earlier, on April 26th, the seven-year, single-dev passion project Manor Lords entered early access and demand immediately crashed the Steam servers. What do these games have in common? How are they different? And what do they say about the promises and perils of the current video game market?
Let’s provide some additional detail on the games. Kerbal Space Program 2 is a sequel to the first game. The focus of the game is a type of physics simulator where players create atmospheric and space-capable craft. The players can visit other planets, conduct experiments, or just play around with designing their own bizarre vehicles (imagine the old class experiment where you had to drop an egg with a team-designed parachute and ratchet it up to 11). KSP2 promised to keep this formula and enhance the graphics, smooth out the bugs, and provide enhanced options for exploration such as new systems, colonization, and more. There was a lot of hype around its launch, with early access becoming available in February of 2023.
To say that KSP2’s early access launch was disastrous would be an understatement. It was in some ways like the Titanic, except instead of hitting an iceberg, the Titanic had simply exploded 30 feet from the pier. The game was all but unplayable in its initial state, barely worthy of a pre-alpha title. Even if you could manage to stabilize it for a while the game also lacked content with few options being usable. KSP was always best viewed as a sandbox but the instability issues and lack of many options infuriated players. None of this stopped the developers from slapping a $50 price tag on it.
The consensus among players was that the developers had been forced to put out an unfinished product after pressure from their publishers. This charge has been leveled at a few other early-access games and wouldn’t be unusual. Additionally, the studio working on this game was not the same one that created KSP 1. While it contains many of the same people (a story for another day) players also felt that the new developers did not get the spirit of what made KSP 1 great. There has been a consistent lack of communication from the developers and while a major science update made the game more playable and stable, there is no discernible roadmap or timetable for adding promised features.
Turning the Manor Lords, this game has been the passion project of the Slavic Magic studio which is largely just the developer Greg Styczeń. While not responsible for all aspects of the game (music, etc.) he has designed much of it from the ground up using funds from a successful Kickstarter and Patrion campaign. Word of mouth for this game built slowly, before rapidly expanding in the past few months. Shortly before release Manor Lords became the most wish-listed game on Steam and sold 1 million copies in just 30 hours.
While the game is still incomplete, there is a host of content missing, the game is fairly stable, with the most common issues coming from outdated graphics drivers. As a biased reviewer (I have followed this project for a while) I have immensely enjoyed the game thus far and believe it has no reason for being as good as it is given how early in the development cycle I t is. There are issues sure, elements are unbalanced, a few quirks can break your game if you don’t know how to account for them, etc. But the game is quite playable, and I have sunk over 35 hours on just one playthrough ….so far.
It is important to note that when comparing these two products, neither story is complete. While KSP2 looks doomed, it has been handed to a new development group that promises to keep working on it. Likewise, Manor Lords is still in its early days. The initial product is pretty solid, especially compared to many other EA games, but the developer has a lot of pressure on them to execute well given how much attention they have gotten. I have been burned before by EA games that launch well, but then get mired in development issues as money and interest rapidly dwindle. Part of the hype of Manor Lords is what it could be: Banished + Age of Empires Total War + insert your favorite game here. But meeting these expectations (at least doing it well) will be impossible and thus the community needs to have patience and understanding, particularly if the dev team continues to remain very small.
What do these things teach us about the state of modern video games? Well, I believe Early Access is still a good thing overall, though with some significant risks. Consumers can now get access to games much earlier and be able to provide developers the funds to get their games “over the hump”. This have allowed us the opportunity to enjoy games that would otherwise never have been made, or that we would only have seen glimpses of before vanishing forever. At the same time, it expands the risk the consumer faces. Whereas there are certain expectations about a game’s stability and quality at its 1.0 launch, players of an early access game have a more difficult time because their concerns, legitimate and otherwise, may be addressed by developers in due course. Players may be unwilling or unable to get a refund if this drags on, and there is little recourse if the game development suddenly ceases with it remaining in a shoddy state.
I am still keenly interested in the ultimate fate of these two games. I loved KSP 1 and I fervently hope that the new development team will provide ongoing support and updates for KSP 2 for years to come. I also think Manor Lords has the opportunity to shake up the industry and define a new genre of video games. The internet is littered with the remains of failed early access, games, kickstarters, and patron campaigns. Democratizing access to video games has opened many new doors to types of games a AAA studio would never risk, but has also burned many consumers as well. Will KSP 2 and Manor Lords be two more examples of fools rushing in for unfinished games? Or will they stand as possibilities for what early access can provide and help developers achieve? Only time will tell.
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