As Kerbal Space Program 2 (opens in new tab) entered Early Access last week, the game's community has seen a lot of commentary, disagreement, and strife. Bugs, performance issues, and "missing" features have been lamented by viewers and reviewers alike (opens in new tab), with PC Gamer's Noah Smith stating that the early access launch is "only for seasoned astronauts." (opens in new tab)

Some players have blasted the early access launch decision, theorizing that it was a corporate decision by publisher Private Division after studio changes and a three-year delay. These flames were fanned by information that some datamaniacs and modders began to discover inside the KSP2 code, while others were quenched. One datamaniac reported finding "most of the modding API, multiplayer sync code, colony management and supply route setup, research, aero-heaters," and more in the code (open in new tab).

Private Division did not explicitly confirm that these data-mined features are in development, but the publisher was generally responsive to what the community has found: "What players are discovering are colonies, interstellar travel, and eventually evidence and affirmation of the enormous amount of work that has been done under the hood to set up the Kerbal Space Program 2 for the new features coming in Early Access, such as multiplayer. Players have found other breadcrumbs and are very much looking forward to sharing about them when the time comes, but we don't want to spoil them.

The publisher also emphasized that the game's release plans have not been neutralized by the management-level pivot to an early access release rather than a full game, as some players have suggested. The decision to release the game in Early Access did not affect our feature set," he said. The complexity of the game is the same as the original, meaning that KSP 2 will be made better by an Early Access process that allows us to work with the community.

This is a strong confirmation by Private Division that more work is being put into KSP 2 than is immediately apparent with the currently limited features. Since the game is about engineering and experimentation, it lends itself well to an early access model, where almost full functionality is omitted because of critical bugs that cannot be resolved in time. Furthermore, the artifacts of development are always left in the code. Many well-known mods consist of finishing and "restoring" such cut content and cut features to the game.

Private Division, on the other hand, seems to be sincerely grateful for fan feedback, some of which is quite extensive, such as the huge open letter (opens in new tab) signed by dozens of modders of the Kerbal Space Program." The ability to test implemented features and adjust priorities based on community feedback is already rapidly improving.

"The community has encountered bugs and performance issues, some of which we were already working to fix, some of which we were not yet aware of but are now actively working to fix. We are very grateful for the patience of the community and are touched by all the supportive comments we have seen on Discord, forums, subreddit, and Steam."

Private Division also directed interested and confused players to the pre-release and launch date notes for examples of known bugs and performance issues in KSP2's first early access release.

"Kerbal Space Program 2," now in early access on publisher-direct Epic and Steam, is the sequel to what we have long called one of the best flight sims on PC, and one of the only ones to simulate space travel in such depth.