KO_OP setting a new standard
Putting money where mouth is in an industry that often doesn't
KO_OP both announced AND released their new game Young Suns today; this is something I've been looking forward to for a long time for a few reasons:
- First off, KO_OP has never put out a bad game; hell Goodbye Volcano High was high on my 'best of 2023' list
- I know several people who worked on this project and while I had no idea WHAT they were working on, I saw their excitement (and it turns out small-scale multiplayer space exploration in the area around Jupiter sounds good as shit)
Go ahead and watch the release trailer!
The announcement had some serious whiplash though! Any qualms I might have had (You may have read my Summer Geoff fest stuff where every crafting and farming and colonial resource gathering game made me lose my mind in terms of being mostly done with that style of game) was tossed aside because of the giant XBOX logo, announcing that this game right now is a timed, XBOX and Gamepass exclusive.
Wait why is that a problem?
Microsoft, and specifically XBOX has been the target of a massive boycott effort by BDS since earlier this year for their involvement in providing technology for the Israeli military's genocide of Palestinians. I've written about it numerous times on this blog.
KO_OP has been actively pro-Palestine, and my heart sank seeing those two next to each other - which is where we get into weird contract stuff.
I have no behind the scenes information here and want to be clear this is pure speculation but in my own experience working in and adjacent to games: deals with publishers and funding partners can absolutely happen early on in the development cycle. Young Suns has been in active development for at least 3 years and it's highly likely the XBOX exclusivity (even if just timed) was negotiated looooong before the boycott was formally announced.
If anything it was probably a reeeeeeal fucking son of a bitch to the pro-Palestinian dev team to find out their game would be tied to a platform specifically being called out as complicit with the horrors in Gaza with them effectively unable to do anything about that due to contracts signed.
A lesser studio would likely make their release announcement and then hope it would all blow over1
What KO_OP did instead was donate $10,000 CAD to MSF's humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza
I also really want to thank @wholesomegames.com for supporting us and for letting us announce by making a donation to Doctors Without Borders Gaza bsky.app/profile/whol...
— Saleem (@seemo.bsky.social) November 25, 2025 at 12:31 PM
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I don't know if there was some sort of rule skirting necessary to do this "on behalf of Wholesome Games" instead of on their own but it's a huge, HUGE move of solidarity - and frankly sets an example in a time when most studios are closing or laying people off and waffling on if they 'need' to pivot to AI to save money: a worker-owned indie studio put their money where their mouth is and did material good for a cause they believe in (that their contractual partner has been involved violently on the opposite end of).
Holy shit, right?
I don't use any Microsoft hardware or platforms at this point so I'll be missing the early days of Young Suns but I'll proudly buy it as soon as it's available on Steam or any other platform.
Anyway as always, thanks for reading. Here's a cat.
Thinking about the time the Ooblets / Button City composer Pedro Silva / Slime Girls was called out for assault, domestic violence and predatory behavior towards femme presenting people, and developers of those games (Glumberland and Subliminal Games) didn't address it at all while also including their games in the 'Wholesome Games' showcases↩