Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games, has been accused of intentionally dismantling the Kerbal Space Program 2 development team. Last month, Kerbal Space Program 2 was officially delayed because of COVID-19, but nothing was said about the rumored staffing trouble.
A new report from Bloomberg alleges that Take-Two engaged in underhanded tactics to ruin Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Star Theory Games and bring development of the game in-house. Take-Two has owned the rights to Kerbal Space Program since 2017 and had contracted Star Theory to make the second game in the space flight simulation series but this contract was reportedly nixed in December 2019.
Private Division, which is also the Take-Two publishing label behind The Outer Worlds, is said to have tried to hire the entire Star Theory Games development team to keep working on the game. From December, Take-Two has been sending out recruitment messages to Star Theory developers, and after just a few weeks more than a third of these developers had begun working at Take-Two.
It's also reported that Take-Two had previously tried to buy Star Theory Games but that the developer's founders didn't like the proposed terms. The implication is that doing things this way provided Take-Two with a much cheaper solution. The in-house team is now making the Kerbal Space Program sequel as Intercept Games.
The report has also revealed that COVID-19 damaged Star Theory's efforts to save the company. The developer officially closed on March 4, 2020, after plans to show new games to publishers at the Game Developers Conference, which was canceled because of COVID-19. Several other major gaming events have been canceled since, such as E3, leaving Star Theory with no option but to close down.
Private Division has only published a handful of games since its founding in 2017 with Kerbal Space Program: Enhanced Edition and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey being just two of them. This month, it will also be releasing the Nintendo Switch version of The Outer Worlds. It's unclear whether acquiring these development teams or poaching developers from this is part of a long-term strategy for Take-Two and the label.
The allegations are likely to cloud over the other announcements that the company is planning to make this month. Private Division will also be part of Summer Game Fest where it is likely to announce several new games but fans may expect some sort of official comment on this report before they are ready to celebrate the publisher's next big reveals.
Kerbal Space Program 2 is expected to launch in fall 2021 for PC and later for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Source: Bloomberg