Can No Man's Sky End on a High?

2 December 2016

It's quite tragic what has happened to No Man's Sky developer Hello Games, and founder Sean Murray, throughout 2016. After receiving unprecedented levels of hype, the game finally released after multiple delays, and has now become the punchline to any joke on a game not meeting expectations. Some critics believe we'll never see another title from Hello Games again, due to their handling of the game's launch, but a nice feature filled update earlier this week gives me hope.

I vividly remember seeing No Man's Sky for the first time way back at the 2013 Video Game Awards. It's endless space and planet exploration looked amazing back then, and two years later when it was featured on IGN First (prompting my glowing preview thoughts of the game here). However after no word on a release date for seeming forever, the hype for the game was dying down, and after further setbacks, things started to turn ugly.

The game's final delay, pushing it into August this year, was almost the fatal blow for No Man's Sky itself. After Kotaku broke this story many fans were so angry they sent death threats to both the reporter and Sean Murray. It was unbelievable how obsessed some people were with this game.

When the game did eventually launch, it seemed only the most loyal fans were truly still excited for it. Just about everyone else had lost significant interest. I decided to wait for reviews to roll in, and they were not great. 6/10 was the general consensus, with the main criticisms being big empty worlds, no player connectivity, and a tedious gameplay loop. Technical issues were also present, especially on PC, with a poor draw distance and frame rate. So with regret I opted out, going completely against my preview impressions last year.

Little did I realise that the obsessed/loyal fans who had bought the game, were soon feeling completely robbed. Hello Games had said that a whole host of features would be in the game, and they just weren't. One was multiplayer, where Sean did say it would be possible to meet other players, it was just "incredibly rare". It turns out this is impossible - proved when two players live streamed from the same planet location. Other features such as an extensive crafting system is not there, and the ability to play the game purely as a trader is not possible.

There are tons of sources out there showing these false promises. Possibly the best is Jim Sterling's video (The Jimquisition) discussing whether Hello Games lied about No Man's Sky.

To make matters worse, Hello Games and Sean Murray did not respond to any of these complaints by effectively entering social media silence for months. I'm guessing they simply did not know how to respond. With no answers for the community who had invested in the game, and technical problems persisting, it's clear to see why the game lost its audience and sales dried up.

I was gutted for this tiny British development team that had obviously poured blood, sweat and tears into making this game, even battling back from a flood in December 2013. This was their famous reaction to finally completing the game disc on Twitter.

So after this long period of silence, Hello Games are back, and No Man's Sky has seen it's first big update with the Foundation update 1.1. This adds the ability to claim a home planet, a full base building system, autonomous mining tools, and even new game modes. It's a huge list of stuff and the studio themselves do a great job showcasing them in this video.

Out of all the bleak possible options for Hello Games, this was the best one to take. It might be tireless days of work for little reward with their drastically cut player numbers, but this shows they are continuing to support the game. They are not going to leave it out to die. If Sean Murray and his team can add those missing features and create a genuinely fun gameplay loop, fans will surely be drawn back in. And if not, at least restore some of their ruined reputation. Greg Miller points out on PS I Love You episode 63, "this can be a redemption story" and I truly hope it is.