Following a rocky development cycle that has seen multiple delays and a set of devs fired, Kerbal Space Program 2 is entering early access in February of 2023. But what exactly will that early access period entail? Thankfully, KSP2 creative director Nate Simpson provided some answers in an interview during the latest PC Gaming Show. You can check out said interview for yourself, below.
So, to broadly sum things up, Kerbal Space Program 2 will launch in February with fairly simple building tools, add Science Mode in phase two, Colonies in phase three, then finally, add multiplayer for the 1.0 launch.
"Right out of the gate, Day 1 early access, functional sandbox, what we're doing is validating the basic physics, basic flight systems, vehicle construction, all the things that make Kerbal, Kerbal.
The second big rollout is going to be Science Mode. That'll be our first progression mode that we're bringing that rewards exploration with increasing technology levels and new kinds of parts.
Then going forward from that we have Colonies, which is a big new thing for KSB2. We'll be adding new star systems over the course of Early Access. The first of the new star systems is called the Debdeb system.
Once we've got all those things, we're going to wrap it up with a nice big bow and deliver multiplayer, which is a thing a lot of us are very eager to experience. Multiplayer introduces the concept of Agencies. You can work alongside friends within the single Agency contributing to a single space program, but you can also play competitively between Agencies. [...] With multi-Agency play you can have space races."
Another crucial question – will the stuff you build in early access carry over to the full game? Simpson hopes so, but he’s not promising anything yet…
"Forward compatibility of craft files is a really important thing for us, but early access being early access... all I can express is a strong hope that vehicles that you build on day one of early access will still be forward compatible when we hit 1.0."
Kerbal Space Program 2 launches in early access on PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store) on February 23, 2023. Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5 versions of the game will follow at a later point.
