UK's Advertising Standards Authority has opened an investigation on No Man's Sky
at the behest of a Redditor who lodged an official complaint with them.
edited 28th Sep '16 9:50:09 AM by CobraPrime
Hello Games did lie in their marketing, especially in regards to almost everything about the multiplayer. Only defense he has was how vague the official marketing was, and how he changed the description to being a singleplayer game that doesn't require an online connection to play (due to player interactions being so "rare") at the last minute.
I really want to say naivete and honest ambition. But the game is so different.
That said, I have found worms - swimming ones. Mega basic animation. But worms!
If they'd sent out something "We've had to postpone several features due to server load and to ensure a great product..." they could've staved off a tonne. But part of me does wonder how much this was pushed by Sony...
Considering Sony Execs have actually said the game seems to be missing feature, seems unlikely they told Hello Game to make shit up.
Shuhei Yoshida told Eurogamer that it sounded like developers were "promising more features in the game from day one".
@Sgt Ricko: Um, I think the ASA investigation is more concerned with the usage of the E3 2014 trailer in the Steam page rather than the interview information (since the devs can easily chalk that up to in-development information that can be changed...using old trailer, not so much)
Give me cute or give me...something?
If that's true, then the ramifications of this case if they successfully sue Hello Games will be more wide-felt than first assumed. A LOT of games on Steam aren't even in the Greenlight phase anymore yet still use outdated gameplay images and footage on their pages. And that's just Steam only; such a ruling would also affect sites like Go G, Origin, etc.
It's not exactly a terrible thing, per se - the ruling would force game devs to be more honest with their promotional media after all.
The No Man's Sky Subreddit
has been shut down by its mods for being a "hate filled wastehole of no actual discussion"
People are... unhappy...
edited 5th Oct '16 1:07:17 PM by CobraPrime
Because complaining unproductively is a basic human entitlement, amirite?
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Well the huge amount of negative press (Nigh unprecedented - even Molyneux didn't get this. Even GODUS didn't get this!)
But I can imagine they may have relocated, or just hidden. Hell, this is enough to make you want to go "eugh". I mean, the game isn't bad. It gets boring. It's more limited than what was asked.
It's not Steam Shovelware level though.
And to think - this could have been avoided with just one sandworm...
That building looks a wee bit TOO abandoned... case in point, the grass growing in front of it, that takes a bit to grow among other things. Pretty sure it's just some random empty business establishment.
I'm probably going to sell my copy tomorrow, though - Hello Games has been way too quiet for too long, and the more I'm hearing from those dissecting the game data it doesn't even seem like they ever intended there to even be a multiplayer aspect. Or in the case of the odd non-functional monoliths, large chunks of missing code that were probably removed since they couldn't get it to work.
EDIT: You know, the more I think about this case, the more I think a lawsuit might actually work against Hello Games. Remember the Hot Coffee mod from GTA: San Andreas? That sucker wasn't even properly functional in the game and had to be activated via modding, yet Rockstar got sued for millions. And in this case, Murray did indeed lie about several things, the multiplayer being the biggest aspect. The other missing features could probably be chalked up to design changes over the course of development (that does happen pretty often in the industry after all), but there's not much defense for the prior.
edited 11th Oct '16 5:12:09 AM by SgtRicko
http://www.polygon.com/2016/10/28/13453440/no-man-sky-creator-game-was-a-mistake
Someone impersonating Sean Murray claims "No mans sky was a mistake". Forbes is saying it was the result of a hack.
edited 28th Oct '16 9:43:57 AM by VeryMelon
Well by the time GODUS was kickstarted, already most people knew Molyneux was a liar. "Liar Lies Again" isn't much gripping headline. Really the surprising part is that there were enough people unaware of his history to actually successfully kickstart anything
They settled out of court. Hot Coffee can't really be taken as proof that a lawsuit has ground or not. There's plenty of reason a company might settle even if it could win - coz it's cheaper, or just to avoid stretching out potential negative publicity, or to avoid having things put into public record. The ended up paying less than a million, Most of the cash went to lawyers as most consumers didn't go claim their money.
edited 28th Oct '16 10:09:35 AM by Ghilz
If anything, No Man's Sky seems like it should be taken as an object lesson for why it's so hard for indie developers to pull off AAA titles. Or that one shouldn't try to sell an indie labor of love as a AAA title, whichever. If they'd pushed this as a single-player sandbox game in a shared universe and sold it for $20, with the promise to ongoingly develop it like Minecraft, nobody would be mad right now. Well, more than are always mad about something.
edited 28th Oct '16 10:06:38 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Yeah, I think you could be right on that. What I think is what screwed Smart over is the sheer amount of money people were willing to just throw at him. Nowhere in his wildest nightmares could anyone in his position expect even a quarter of what was paid his way. And I also think he isn't over the shock yet.
In what many are referencing as a reaction to No Man's Sky's controversy, amongst others, Valve has announced that screenshots in the Valve Store
can only be from in-game footage. Not concept art, not CG pieces.
Which is nice... but also totally unenforceable. For one it'd require Valve to actually keep an eye on the games they sell, which we know they do not. And you're going to get plenty of games that skirt the border (Like No Man's Sky footage that was in engine and made it seemed like we'd get giant space battles).
Likely this doesn't apply to Early Access and Greenlight.
If you're in the steam store and you only have concept art to promote your game, then you have no game and it shouldn't have a store page.

Well seems like the latest update has changed some of the animals a bit - more variation in the procedural side.
I found a worm! An actual worm!
Admittedly it was more a swimming eel with the most awkward animation going. Some more aquatic mammals as well.
Oh and you have to now individually click on creatures / finds in the sub menu to upload them, rather than being able to hold down the key and drag over them all to upload.
Still playing on and off, slowly. Getting a bigger ship soon. Then will probably finally hit the centre. Also found a bounty mission.