Months after a Bloomberg report claimed that Kerbal Space Program2 developer Intercept Games would close at the end of the month, multiple employees confirmed that a large number of workers, possibly the entire team, had been fired.6

The initial report was corroborated by the April Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN), which indicates that 70 employees at Take Two's Seattle office will be fired as of the 28th and the studio will be closed. Take-Two declined to comment, but a few weeks later, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that Roll7, the developer of Intercept and OlliOlli, was also not closed.

"To be clear, we didn't shutter those studios," Zelnick said. "And we're always looking at the release schedule in every studio and making sure it makes sense. We are very sensible because we have already come to the conclusion and are in the midst of a cost reduction program that is currently fully deployed. We announced that we are saving saving165 million in existing and future costs, but we have not shut down anything."

What it actually meant — that the initial closure report was wrong, that the studios were simply not closed at the time, or that they were gutted but would continue to exist as zombie companies — was not clear and no elaboration had been made.

Whatever fate awaits intercept, it will obviously be without a large number of its employees — perhaps all of them. "The team at Intercept Games will be fired on 6/28, so a great group will come out and look for their new roles," Senior Design Manager Quinn Duffy wrote on LinkedIn. "I got to know the designer pretty well in all my too short time there. These are some wonderfully smart and talented people and I am happy to assure them of their qualities. And I can say the same about other areas — good people across the board.

"My teammates and I at Intercept Games have been affected by recent layoffs," software engineer John del Valle wrote in his own post. "It's an honor to be able to work on such a complex and wonderful franchise, and I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to be part of the engineering team for both Kerbal Space Program 6 and 2 for more than a year."I will be fired at the end of the 6th month, along with a talented colleague from the intercept game," principal engineer Mark Jones wrote. "It's an absolute pleasure to work with this team and we couldn't ask for a more dedicated group of developers who really embrace the spirit of Kerbal. It will be difficult to say goodbye to such a unique title and franchise, but all the good things have to end. "This is a tough time for this industry and unfortunately another great group of developers is going to be looking for a job.

Based on these posts, it sounds like the whole team, or at least most of them, is letting go. Take-Two's previous statements indicate that the private Division publishing label (i.e., not its subsidiary Intercept Games) is "continuing to update the Kerbal Space Program2" but it is not yet known how many actual layoffs and whether that would constitute a shutdown.

Whatever happens, Kerbal fans have become clear about their frustration on Steam: the recent Kerbal Space Program2 review — more than 2,100 reviews posted in the past 30 days — is "overwhelmingly negative.""I've reached out to Take-Two for a comment and will update if I receive a reply.