Kerbal Space Program will leave Early Access next update

Kerbal Space Program will leave Early Access with its next update. Come one, come all, and join me in a moment's Also sprach Zarathustra.

It's not been revealed when the update will release, but the rocketry sim only entered beta last month. "As development in Beta has progressed, one thing has become very apparent," writes SQUAD's Felipe “HarvesteR” Falanghe, "Kerbal Space Program is about to reach a state in which every single one of the original goals for the game has been reached, and we can say that our original design document has been fulfilled."

That means the game will soon be officially released—a somewhat strange designation as it's been both available to buy and brilliant for a long time now. Nevertheless, it won't be the end of development. "We see no better way to follow up on reaching our initial goals than to continue development on Kerbal Space Program, beyond Beta, past our original plans," HarvesteR writes.

The 1.0 update itself will bring, among other things, new, more realistic modelling of drag and lift, an 'Engineer's Report' warning of crucial design flaws, a game over state, and female Kerbals. You can see a full run-down of the planned features over at the KSP forum.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.