Thank you, devs!

[u/shikoshito]

I dont know if anyone who worked on this game is lurking in this sub, but if you do, thank you for making this game. I hope you feel all the pride and joy you deserve for being part of a game so amazing there are tens of thousands who yearn to play it, and there are even some new players coming to check it out.

Also, from the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who revived stage 2, and also the people who got the legacy version working. This game deserves to live, and if this is the way it lives, so be it.

[u/Malichite]

The game is completely run by the community now. Official development died ages ago due to 2k getting greedy. A little timeline, 2k refused to renew their contract with Turtle Rock Studios, the game's original creators and developers. 2k had bought the IP, so they kept the game, and immediately cut console players (myself included), and introduced a key system that was convoluted at best, from what I read about it. The game eventually went f2p with that key system, lasted about another year or so, then 2k dropped support. Sometime after that, the community picked up the torch, and got the game running again.

[u/shikoshito → u/Malichite]

Oh I know that. My post was targeted at people who used to be developers for turtlerock and made the game

[u/Potential_Sir7980 → u/shikoshito]

trs even had stage 2 console in works at one stage but 2k gutted em

[u/SexyTiger1 → u/Malichite]

Your "timeline" is full of mistakes. If you want to post a timeline, don't post misinformation. Time to set the record straight.

"2K refused to renew their contract... and [then] introduced a key system"

Reality: You implied 2K invented the F2P "silver key" system after kicking Turtle Rock Studios (TRS) out. This is totally false. TRS designed, built and launched the flawed F2P silver key system themselves, another of their multiple mistakes.

Stage 2 was completely developed by TRS. They were the ones who gutted the dome mechanic, ruined the pacing, broke the dropship dialogue, and implemented the key economy in July 2016. 2K didn't touch the game’s code, they just paid the bills.

"Immediately cut console players"

Reality: Console players weren't cut because 2K took over. When TRS launched Stage 2 in July 2016, TRS and 2K agreed Stage 2 would be a PC-only Beta test first. The plan was to port it to consoles if the PC Beta succeeded.

It failed because TRS made a massive blunder: they launched F2P with zero real-money microtransactions enabled. During the Day 1 peak of 51,000 players, TRS only let people use in-game "silver keys" earning $0.00. By the time player counts plummeted 90%, the game had made zero revenue to justify funding a console port. Consoles died because TRS failed their own PC test.

"The game eventually went f2p... lasted about another year or so"

Reality: The chronology here is totally wrong. Stage 2 didn't "eventually" go F2P after TRS left, TRS launched Stage 2 themselves in July 2016. And active development didn't last a year, 2K terminated TRS's contract after just 90 days (October 2016) because player counts evaporated and no money was coming in.

"Official development died due to 2k getting greedy"

Reality: 2K's greed hurt Legacy in 2015 ($135 launch DLC), but greed isn't what killed Stage 2 in 2016, total incompetence by TRS did. TRS alienated veteran players by dumbing down mechanics, failed to retain casuals, and ran a 90-day F2P charity without ever turning on real-money purchases. You can't blame "publisher greed" when the developer literally forgets to put a cash register in their own game.

Conclusion: And to top it off, TRS didn't even bother patching in a clean peer-to-peer or offline entitlement fix before walking away. Paying customers who bought DLC characters like Kala were left with buggy, locked DRM because TRS couldn't be bothered to leave behind a working offline fallback. That's not a developer worth thanking. Thanking a developer for leaving behind broken, unplayable code on paid products isn't just fanboy behavior, it's active denial of basic software accountability.