No Man's Sky has become synonymous with ambitious developer overreach, a cautionary tale of what can happen when publishers do nothing to reign in out-of-control hype. When the game was released in 2016 and failed to meet sky-high expectations set in no small part by Hello Games director Sean Murray himself, fan backlash was the stuff of legends. But ever since, the developer has set about making amends.
Seven years later, the ambitious sci-fi exploration game is in a much better place. Alongside Final Fantasy XIV and Cyberpunk 2077, it is often pointed to as an example of developers winning back lost faith with burned players. But the road has been long and gruelling, as evidenced by a recent Twitter post from Murray himself.
Murray explains that on Steam, where such user-measured metrics are plain for all to see, No Man's Sky now enjoys a score of 78% Positive in "All Reviews". In 2021, the game reached a Mostly Positive (70%) rating, which took five years to do. It's a fascinating insight into how players have come to view the game more positively over time. Murray remains hopeful: "Mathematically, each % point is much harder to gain than the last — I never thought it possible, but guys, we might hit "Very Positive" (80%) one day."
Have you come to see No Man's Sky in a new light? Do you think Hello Games has earned back player trust, and are you looking forward to the studio's next game, Light No Fire? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 39
With all the work they put in I feel like they more than deserve it.
@ATaco 1000% agree. No man's sky is an epic game and it's one of the games I intend to replay with all the ps5 goodness they threw into it..plus the gazillion updates and extra features they introduced for free..FOR FREE.
At least he stuck with it, I guess. More than I can say for 99% of other developers who arrogantly release a broken game.
Amazing game. Really in it's current state it should be a 90% at least. It's massive, dense, and keeps giving.
Also for anyone on the fence and willing to not laugh at it, THIS is the PSVR2 system seller, right here, full stop. It was pure jank a year ago but boy oh boy is it utterly amazing in PSVR2 now.
Hell yes it's amazing in the PSVR2
I loved the game since day 1. Never got caught up in the hate-bandwagon that followed. Got my moneys worth and with all the free updates since then it just better and better imho. 🦾🥰✌️And PSVR2 is THE way to play it, just sayin' ✌️
Unbelievable how good the game is, and playing in PSVR2 just blows your mind every time you jump in.
They get a lot of props for sticking with it. Most Devs would have cut and run a long time ago.
It is hard to take this article seriously with a banner ad draped at the bottom to Buy Now 50% Off.
I really need to get back into No Man's Sky. For me, it's the perfect game to chill with. I have it on Xbox/PC, Switch, and PS5. I'd love to jump into the PS5 version on PS VR2, but man is that thing expensive.
Some gamers out there: "They can never be forgiven or trusted! They lied to me! wahwahwah!". The same with cdpr.
To be honest, No man's Sky was even a good game at launch, despite the small indie studio having been swept away by the pressures of crazy hype and over promising as a result. I fully felt for Sean Murray and the team in that unfortunate situation. The gaming community just has to acknowledge that we all are a big part of the problem.
The best and most complete space game out there in my opinion. Been with it since day 1 and its been an amazing journey.
Well deserved. For any curious, it looks great in PSVR 2, in fact, it looks the best out of any version due to Foveated Rendering.
@tameshiyaku I'm not apologising for ranting about an unfinished game. There is no excuse for it and most of these games DO NOT get multiple years worth of updates to provide us with what was promised.
If anything the way they've dealt with No Man's Sky makes me trust them more than I probably would of done if No Man's Sky had released as advertised. Not only do I now know their commitment to Light No Fire is going to be unmatched, but I also know they won't make the same mistake again.
Massive props!
I think their reputation has been pretty good for a few years now. Amazing game.
Hate to be that guy, but I can't accept false marketing as a premise to get 78% as a success 7(!) years later. It's the ToddHowardisation of gaming standards, and this needs to be left behind right now, better years ago.
Too bad games are designed as mostly ticking boxes off and pleasing shareholders since Wall Street got involved. Sony is a glaring example of how creative games could get around for years and be considered classics (PS2 & PS3 era), not being considered "above average" when they enter Elemantary School.
@LifeGirl thank you!
@LifeGirl They’ve clearly put a lot of time and effort into the game and gone well above and beyond what was promised and still continue to release everything for free. They made a mistake with the release, no one can deny that, but they’ve definitely redeemed themselves enough. They could have stopped after a few updates. I’m glad the game is a success.
@tameshiyaku They have quite a different tjing them CDPR the game they sold worked out of the box on the platforms they sold it on. Their work was also wahed away in a flood in their office and a its a smaller studio.
It's been a great game for years obviously but honestly I liked the launch version, and sort of miss the simpler version of it sometimes.
Credit to them for fixing the game. I need to get that launch state out of my brain and try and game again with all the fixes.
"do nothing to reign in out-of-control hype"
Rein in, as in pulling on the reins.
Reigns is Kings & Queens.
They Already Redeemed themselves YEARS AGO in my Eyes, definitely can't complain.
Happy Gaming ✌!
I maybe in the minority or even on my own but I never blamed Murray or Hello Games for the hype.
I blame Playstation, they are the ones who hyped it out of reach and then put Murray on the main stage.
I dont actually think he ever lied, he's a indie developer with great ambitions and nerves and put infront of millions of people without any training, he was just spirringnout his plans.
The game now is probably the vision he had back when they made the game.
Playstation hyped it up so much, Murray didn't really have a choice.
I bought this on day one and played for a couple dozen hours and fell off. I understand the game is much expanded, which is truly remarkable, though the resource grind is pretty hard to get myself back into.
One day, I'll get myself a VR headset and give this another go. Methinks that's the secret sauce that's needed for me now.
I genuinely believe Sean Murray was put in an untenable situation by Sony. If the title had remained an indie project it would have been fine. Whether it would have continued to develop towards his ultimate vision without Sony backing we’ll never know.
They deserve the world to be honest, its a small team and they have slogged their guts out to deliver high quality updates and all for free, they have more than earned the right of "being redeemed"
No Mans Sky is a game I play weekly, its just a lovely vibe and to do whatever you want, and with no microtransaction stores or overpriced DLCs or login bonuses its just a game that respects your time however you want to play it.
Super refreshing and super chill, and its always the game I turn to for a bit of escapism if im having a hard time of it in the real world.
@wildcat_kickz
The resource grind is no way near how it was, you can literally ammned your game to play however you want.. ie resources, abundant! or switch your save to creative and never ever worry about having to pay for anything or run out of resources ever again.
One of my favorite Games. Echoing many here that it is a top chill game to play, very meditative.
@LifeGirl your right to rant and unapologetic. If it's healthy is another question entirely.
@LifeGirl whenever I read such posts, I do wonder just how perfect people must be at their jobs to have such demands of others. Never miss a deadline, never make any mistakes. Fascinating stuff.
@NEStalgia can you play sitting down? I have psvr2 but I don't have a ton of space where I have my PS5 located. I played both Moss games but my go to is definitely gt7
@LifeGirl Yes but people make mistakes. People fail. At launch it was still a playable game. They just ran out of time for what they had planned. They have more than made up for it. They have years ago actually and would be fully within their right to charge for some of these updates after delivering what they promised. Yet they continuously go above and beyond for free to anyone who owns the game. I haven't played it but I will some day.
@mvhess Yes, definitely! That's how I play, and it'd be waaaay too many hours standing if you had to stand, lol. You just need the range of movement to point your hand around, because you're pointing your beam to interact with things like a gun. Totally fine sitting. You just need enough space to your side to grab the handle to lift the hood to get out of your ship, which is to either side a little distance in the cockpit, that's the only place I had to do some awkward hand placement, IRL because where the right and left ship exit handles sit, I have other objects.
To be honest, I loved the game when the first came out. I thought it was great…everything that they have done since that is awesome….thanks!!!
Good for them. It can't be easy to win gamers back. After issues at launch, so many gamers move on and never look back. Revisiting games after they're patched can turn out good.
Baldo The Guardian Owls is another, albeit smaller, example. They patched the game considerably and released new content for free. Now it's great.
Content updates maybe they are fair or hit and miss. VR users oh boy they have really great messaging there for that side of the game's userbase they just straight up offer the feature but barely support it well in updates.
The motion controls as a fan of motion controls aren't good they aren't clear. They put partial Dualsense support when it's in VR what laziness.
They are like Mojang offer the feature but it runs horribly visually (at least No Man's Sky never had the inventory positioning/opacity bug because Mojang were that lazy until the community made a big enough fuss to say fix it or else when they shouldn't have had to or better messaged they were trying to solve it) or functionally so why bother. I respect VR being there then not but it's still horrible.
No wonder modders do a better job sometimes, they don't have the hours, the meetings, the this and that to delay them they just get to it. Real jobs slow things down then modders doing it in their free time or many modders looking at the same project to collaborate and have more keen eyes and less delays from the limits jobs put employees under and the product takes longer to get solutions then a modder in a few days/weeks/month depending on the code/how the game responds in the way it can and to work around it to behave the way they want as games can act on their own, versus an employee same amount or longer.
This is why people praise Minecraft modders so much to fix with mods solutions Mojang suck at. Garbage Datapacks/Mods community content prompts only they have to 'not get sued' or have idiots not know any better community content has nothing to do with them and modders made a mod to remove it because it's distracting and with no tick box why wouldn't they remove it. To just odd bugs. That's besides the quality of life/content adding mods.
Some bugs make for great things from Redstone bug left in to others but sometimes they are just a joke and the programmers miss it build to build and it's just annoying.
Barely offering Dualsense support or putting it in patch notes so people have to just wait, test it in ships/in person play and check then go to the subreddit or just wait update to update to be able to play as they have better things to do.
PSVR1 works better but they won't replicate it with the PS5 version controller APIs even if graphics are a bit eh then prior updates. How lazy can they be just replicate it offer both controller methods it's not that hard. If Gran Turismo 7 let alone Nintendo games with 3+ controller methods can do it there is no excuse other than fewer staff.
Whatever bug fixes they aren't fixing but carrying over between builds because they are too lazy to check between the code of old and new and reintroduce bugs or they are still there. They need to separate their test builds and their for launch ones that add the content/solve things. It's just messy.
But PSVR2 the Dualsense support feels like a mod/after thought. I get people that go oh ok menus and keyboard/mouse on PC with controller support for things but for a console experience putting the motion controllers away/to the side for the Dualsense is just some mod level expectations not an official company solution of laziness.
What are their better devs or whatever the case of staff laziness the other devs are on Light No Fire (understandable with multiple projects especially for engine changes or different programmers or whatever, it's not like I expect the animators/designers/artists to be involved) instead then their No Man's Sky update staff or bug fix staff being so disappointing of looking between versions code base and solving problems it's past being a joke and just disgusting.
That aside I miss the old multiplayer. While it didn't work well to at all, I hate the whole eh generic multiplayer. The other felt more immersive of oh hey. It's like when you see other people actually exploring in an MMO, a simulation, actual space or a sci-fi show.
Different people/factions rather than hey lets play together co-op. Meeting up at a spot in an MMO. Ok sure ruin the unique multiplayer for human emotional connection co-op generic multiplayer. Sure building and exploring together helps the experience to get things done or people just want to collaborate or whatever but it should have still been an option the old multiplayer.
It's no different to an MMO being the case of just doing anywhere in the game world but with a bit of a difference then just oh co-op sure.
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