We all have our unique thresholds of garbage we’re willing to deal with, and it fairly changes from person top person based on their believes and outlook on life, along with whether or not that have a healthy sense of unbridled optimism.
So when we’re discussing No Man’s Sky, everyone tends to come out of the proverbial woodwork to offer their two cents. The underlying theme, however, is one that the video game industry (and the corporate world as a whole) has struggled with incessantly over the years.
When can you forgive a company?
No Man’s Sky notorious release offered further reasoning to players why you should never pre-order titles based on developers word alone: the vast majority of promised features and mechanics were completely missing, and when Hello Games (and more accurately, Sean Murray) were questioned, the studio seemed to disappear almost entirely.
Queue thousands of pissed-off players that had been lied to so a developer could push their title, forums blowing up with cries for blood, and everyone that didn’t pre-order having a hearty laugh.
This isn’t subjective, either; these are simply the events as they transpired.
You may be far from home, but you’re never alone. #NoMansSky @hellogames pic.twitter.com/A8sIvEbvd6
— Marty Merrick (@marty_merrick) September 9, 2020
Hello Games crawled back out from their metaphorical hole months later, and began grinding on No Man’s Sky to bring literally any promised aspect to light, after a few muttered apologies and the kicking of rocks.
No Man’s Sky has continued to receive updates, bringing in a wide slew of features from mechs to fixing the ‘randomly generated aliens’ that were less that ideal upon release, and even adding in the multiplayer that they promised the title would have upon release.
Ultimately, Hello Games lied to consumers to hype up their title, and have since worked on that title to bring it to what it should have been on release. Some argue that what they have done since release, finally emerging and beginning to work on the title so the players that couldn’t return it could actually play, is more than enough to clear Hello Games from their blatant lies.
Others are a bit more hesitant; after all, if a developer can be forgiven for misrepresenting their title by working on it to the point where almost everything originally stated would be in the title is there, what’s to stop them from simply doing it again.
This is the crux of where Hello Games is at with the second title that they’ve briefly talked about recently, and also how the industry fans are reacting to the news. Frankly put, Hello Games word means very little at this point, and the idea that they are once again swinging for an ambitious title has more than a few mildly concerned about the future, lest they once again over-promise and under-deliver.