Since its reveal at the 2013 VGX show and over the course of its development, the potential of ''No Man's Sky
had been widely promoted across the video game industry and created a great deal of hype. Matt Kamen of Wired UK called No Man's Sky'' "perhaps one of, if not the, most hyped indie titles in the history of gaming". Much of the attention has been drawn to the massive scope realised by the procedural generation of the game, and the relatively small size of the Hello Games's team behind it. ''No Man's Sky
was seen as a potential industry-changing title, challenging the status quo of triple-A game development, which, according to Peckham, had become "rich and complacent". No Man's Sky
has been considered by Nathan Lawrence of IGN as a mainstream-friendly space flight simulator game, providing controls that were "simple to learn and fascinating to plumb" compared to Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen'' while still offering engaging gameplay.
During development The concepts behind ''No Man's Sky
, allowing for a "grail-like feedback loop" around the exploration of near-infinite space according to Time Matt Peckham, created a great amount of anticipation for the game from gamers, as such lofty goals were often seen as a dare for them to challenge. In a specific example, Hello Games had first claimed their system would achieve 4.3 billion planets (232) through the use of a 32-bit key; when players expressed doubt that this scope could be done, Hello Games altered their approach to use a 64-bit number as to create 18 quintillion planets to prove otherwise. Many commentators compared No Man's Sky'' to 2008's
Spore by
Maxis, which had promised similar ambitions to use procedural generation to construct new creatures and worlds. However, by
Spores release, the extent of the use of procedural generation was scaled back during the course of production, and the resulting game was not as well-received as anticipated. Murray was aware that some critics were applying caution to their view of ''No Man's Sky
due to their previous experiences with Spore''. Kris Graft for
Gamasutra commented that many players and journalists had lofty expectations for the game, with some believing that it would be, among other aspects, the "best space sim", the "best multiplayer action shooter", and the "best pure exploration game". Murray himself was aware of the "unrealistic, intangible level of excitement" that fans had of the game and given that they had been waiting three years to play it, would be expecting it to be perfect. He countered that he felt he and Hello Games tried to be "reasonably open and honest about what the game is" all throughout the marketing cycle to set expectations. On the day before the official release, Murray cautioned players that ''No Man's Sky'' may not have been "the game you imagined from those trailers" and instead that the title was meant as a "very very chill game", giving players a universe-sized sandbox that makes you feel as if you "stepped into a sci-fi book cover"; Murray believed the game would have a "super divisive" response from players due to some of these expectations. ''No Man's Sky'' developed a dedicated fan-base before its release, with many congregating in a
subreddit to track and share information published about the game. Following the news of the game's delay from June to August 2016, Murray, along with
Kotaku writer
Jason Schreier, who first reported on the rumour of the delay, received a number of
death threats in response, which Murray publicly responded to in good humor. The situation was seen by other journalists as a growing issue between the prerelease hype created by marketing for video games, and the excited nature of the fans of these games even before their release.
New Statesman Phil Hartup considered that when marketing for a game drives a need for any type of news by those anxious to play the game, disappointing news such as delays could readily lead to online fans reacting in a paranoid manner against marketing expectations. Phil Owen writing for
TheWrap blamed such issues on the video game marketers, as the field had become less about selling a game and more about creating a cult-like following for the game and "weaponizing fandom".
At release In addition to its mixed response from critics, player reaction to the release version of ''No Man's Sky'' was
generally negative in response to several issues at the game's launch, buoyed by early reactions from those that had played the game before its official release. Users expressed concern with the apparent lack of features and other issues associated with the PlayStation 4 launch, Players were also disappointed at the apparent lack of features that Hello Games and Sony had stated in earlier announcements and interviews would be included in the game; a list initially compiled by members of the ''No Man's Sky
subreddit consisting of all such features appeared around a week after launch. By October 2016, the game had one of the worst user-based ratings on Steam, with an aggregate "mostly negative" average from more than 70,000 users. At the 2017 Game Developers Conference, Murray admitted they have far underestimated the number of players that would initially get the game; using estimates from Inside and Far Cry: Primal, both released just before No Man's Sky
, the studio had expected about 10,000 concurrent players at launch, but in actuality saw over 500,000 players across both PlayStation 4 and Windows, with about half coming from the Windows side. This overwhelmed their expected server capacity and overloaded their support team with bug reports and technical help, leading to the noted problems with communications within the release window. At the same event, Hello Games announced that they had started their own support programme, known as "Hello Labs", which will help fund and support the developers of games using procedural generation, or otherwise experimental gameplay. Murray stated they anticipate funding one or two games at a time, and that one title was already part of the programme at the time of announcement. and that the chance of meeting other players through chance encounters would be "incredibly slim". Murray had stated in a 2014 interview that No Man's Sky
would include a matchmaking system that is similar to that used for Journey when such encounters do occur; each online player would have an "open lobby" that any players in their in-universe proximity would enter and leave. Furthering this was the discovery that European copies of the limited edition packaging used a sticker to cover the PEGI online play icon. Journalists noted a number of potential reasons why the players may not have encountered each other, including the users being on separate instances or server problems reported by Hello Games at launch, though some opined that this may have been a feature removed before launch. In the announcement of this update, Hello Games admitted to being "quiet" but have been paying attention to the various criticisms levelled at the game. Schreier from Kotaku
and Ben Kuchera of Polygon
commented that some of the negative player reaction was due to a lack of clarification on these apparently missing features from either Hello Games or Sony in the weeks just after release, with Kuchera further stating that with the silence from either company, "the loudest, most negative voices are shouting unopposed" and leading to a strong negative perception of the game. Kuchera later wrote that many of the issues in the lead-up and follow-up to No Man's Sky
release, whether by choice or happenstance, provide many lessons on the importance of proper public relations. Kuchera specifically pointed to the decision to withhold review copies and an apparent lack of public relations (PR) to manage statements relating to what features would be in the game. Kuchera also noted that many people had taken the hype generated by the press only to be disappointed by the final game and that consumers did have ways to evaluate the game following its release before they purchased the title. Jesse Signal, writing for the Boston Globe noted that some of the hype for No Man's Sky'' may be attributed to game journalists themselves for getting too excited about the game, positing "Had journalists asked certain questions at certain times, perhaps it would have been more difficult for Hello Games to make promises it couldn't deliver on." Murray himself stated in a 2019 interview that prior to the game's release, much of their contact was with journalists who Hello Games believed understood the nature of video game development, and thus expected their statements about what ''No Man's Sky'' would be tempered to reflect the reality of Hello Games being a small team with limited time. Instead, Murray found that the press took their words for granted, and created expectations for players that they could not have met at launch. As a result, Hello Games has since shifted toward communication directly with the community rather than the press and keeping only to patch updates or near-release features to keep expectations in check. The lack of features in the release version of the game became a point of contention, with many players using the Steam and GOG.com review pages, along with Metacritic reviews, to give it poor ratings. A
Reddit user temporarily took down the documented list of removed features after he received messages that congratulated him on "really sticking it to these 'dirtbag' devs", which was not his intention in publishing the list; he wanted no part of the anger towards Hello Games. The subreddit forum had become hostile due to a lack of updates from Hello Games or Sony, leading one moderator to shutting down the subreddit due to the toxicity of the comments, later undoing that action on further review. In an interview in July 2018, Murray stated that the period following ''No Man's Sky'' release was difficult for him and the studio due to the backlash that included numerous death and bomb threats during that period that forced the studio to be in constant contact with
Scotland Yard. Murray stated of that period, "I find it really personal, and I don't have any advice for dealing with it." The Hello Games's Twitter account had been hacked into in October 2016 and used to post the message "No Man's Sky was a mistake" among other tweets before the companies regained control of it, leading to confusion and additional drama within the community. Users sought refunds for the game via both Sony and Valve outside of the normal time allowance for claiming such refunds by their policies, citing the numerous bugs within the game and/or the lack of features, and while some players claim to have received such refunds, both companies have reemphasised their refund policies in response to the volume of refund requests. Game journalist
Geoff Keighley, who had been in discussions with Murray and Hello Games throughout the development, had expressed concern to Murray in the year leading up to its release, according to Keighley in September 2016. He said he was "internally conflicted" about the state of the game near its release, recognising that many of the features that Murray had been talking about were not going to make it, and compared Murray to
Peter Molyneux who had overpromised on a vision for his games that ultimately fell short. Keighley had expressed to Murray his concern that the $60 price tag was a bit steep for the current state of the game and recommended that they take an
early access approach instead. According to Keighley, Murray said he didn't want to be around Keighley anymore as he was "a little too negative about the game and [Keighley]'s assessment of where the team was at". Keighley felt that Murray could not "rip off that band-aid" and explain exactly what had made it and had to be cut for the game prior to release, and in the end, appeared to "disrespect his audience". As such, Keighley sympathised with those that felt they were misled by the marketing. Keighley rekindled the relationship with Murray since launch, and anticipated discussing more of what happened near release with him. Sony chairman
Shawn Layden, in November 2016, stated that Hello Games had an "incredible vision" and a "very huge ambition" for ''No Man's Sky'', and that the developers are still working to update the game to bring it to what they wanted, adding that "sometimes you just don't get all the way there at the first go". Layden further expressed that from Sony's side, they recognised that they "don't want to stifle ambition" and force a specific style of play onto their games. In September 2016, the
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of the United Kingdom, following on "several complaints", began an investigation into the promotion of ''No Man's Sky
. The ASA has the authority to require publishers to remove offending advertising materials if they are found in violation of ASA standards. In the No Man's Sky'' complaints directed at Hello Games and Valve, the ASA specifically evaluated materials used on the Steam store page to promote the game that demonstrates features that do not appear to be a part of the final game but have also reviewed other official promotional outlets including the game's official YouTube channel. Several game industry lawyers, speaking to
PC Gamer, noted that while the ASA has successfully taken action in previous cases of false advertising, demonstrating such for a procedurally generated game of ''No Man's Sky'' scope may be difficult since it is impossible to play the entire game to prove something does not exist. The lawyers also noted that most of what Murray and other Hello Games members said outside of any official promotional channels, such as interviews or through social media, cannot be taken as part of the game's advertising, further limiting the claims that the ASA can act on. The ASA ruled in November 2016 that the Steam storepage advertising of ''No Man's Sky'' was not in breach of their standards, attributing the used footage and screenshots to be reasonably representative of the average player's experience with a procedurally generated game, and dismissed the submitted complaints; the ASA further ruled that as Valve has no control over what Hello Games included on the store page, they were not liable for the material either.
Subsequent updates On 25 November 2016, Hello Games announced it was planning on bringing a large update, known as the "Foundation" Update, to the game, stating that "We have been quiet, but we are listening and focusing on improving the game that our team loves and feels so passionately about." Hello Games had not mentioned a release window, and many journalists were surprised when the update was released just two days later. The update was generally well received by journalists, that while not fully satisfying all the features that seemed to have been promised for the game, helped to push the game into the right direction in anticipation of future major patches. The update had drawn back some players that had previously turned their back on the game and created a better reception from some players, while others still remained disappointed by the game's initial release problems. The second major update, "Path Finder", was released in March 2017. By the time of the third major update, "Atlas Rises", a year after its initial release, many felt the game was now much better and approaching what they had expected.
Wired Julie Muncy said that the ability of the updates to ''No Man's Sky'' demonstrates the game can be more organic, adding significant new features that can dramatically change the feel of the game. Following the first patch, journalists generally commended Hello Games for staying quiet about the exact details of the update until just prior to its release to avoid the same situation that the game fell into upon its initial release. To avoid any repeat of the mistakes from the game's launch, nearly all subsequent major updates were only preannounced by Murray tweeting an
emoji that hinted at the contents of the update two or three days before the update was released, allowing the game's community to get hyped up without drawing out their anticipation.
Gamasutra named Hello Games one of its top ten developers for 2016 not only for the technical achievements within ''No Man's Sky
, but also for not collapsing amid the anger directed at the company and instead continuing to make improvements to the game. The continued free improvements to No Man's Sky'' have been considered a redemption for Hello Games and the game's launch by several outlets. By the time of its five-year anniversary, ''No Man's Sky'' user reviews on Steam had swung to "mostly positive" after initially starting at "overwhelmingly negative" at the time of its release, and reached 'very positive', representing 80% or more positive reviews, eight years from launch. At the five-year anniversary and after it, journalists from websites such as
IGN,
TechRadar, and
TheGamer started to report on the game as one of the greatest redemption arcs in gaming.
Influence The discrepancy between ''No Man's Sky'
s expectations and its initially released product are considered a milestone in video game promotion, with many sources considering how to properly promote a game in a "post-No Man's Sky'' world". The situation around the game's promotion using screenshots and videos that were not from its final state, a practice known as "
bullshotting", led to discussion among developers, publishers, and journalists of how to best showcase upcoming games without being deceptive to the audience. Keighley, who felt some responsibility for the ''No Man's Sky'' situation, announced that all games that would be shown at
The Game Awards 2016 would be more focused on gameplay of near-completed games using a
Let's Play-type format rather than allowing for scripted or pre-rendered videos. Several journalists attribute a change in Valve's Steam storefront policies in November 2016, requiring all game screenshots and videos to be from the final product, as a response to ''No Man's Sky''. The failure of ''No Man's Sky
promotional aspects has affected other space simulation and open world games that are based on the premise of providing a vast ranging sandbox for players, as players have become wary of the broad claims that these games might make. Novaquark, the developers of the upcoming open-world Dual Universe, found themselves struggling to complete their Kickstarter funding in the months immediately after No Man's Sky
release, but have recognised the need to be open and transparent to potential funders on what the game will and will not have. Fenix Fire, the developers of the space exploration game Osiris: New Dawn, used the various question-and-answers that Sean Murray had to handle during the prerelease period to gauge what players were looking for in such games and guide development of their own game. According to a report from Kotaku
, BioWare had envisioned that Mass Effect: Andromeda would use procedural generation for creating a universe to explore prior to No Man's Sky
announcement, and further pushed for this following the excitement for No Man's Sky'' once it was announced, but could not get the procedural generation to work well with the
Frostbite 3 game engine, and had to scrap these plans by 2015.
Eurogamer Wesley Yin-Poole observed that following ''No Man's Sky'' problematic release, developers appear to be "keeping their cards close to their chests for fear of failing to deliver on a promise that never should have slipped out in the first place"; as an example, he stated that
Rare's
Sea of Thieves, whereas having only been promoted through obscure videos that left too many questions to potential players in its earlier stages, has started an "Insider" programme in December 2016 to provide limited alpha-testing access and more concrete gameplay videos. Similarly, Compulsion Games, who premiered their game
We Happy Few at
PAX East 2015 to similar hype as ''No Man's Sky
, worked to backtrack on perceived expectations of their game after seeing what had happened to No Man's Sky'' at its launch. Specifically, Compulsion, a small developer, found that many were treating their game as a
AAA release, and wanted to be clear what the game was to be, deciding to use the
early access approach to provide transparency. == Notes ==