No Man's Sky release date announced.

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gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,736
447
126
I've got a pretty good metric for knowing when a game is going to be overhyped and underdeliver:

Back in 2006, I read this article, not actually having heard about Spore, but I certainly loved Sim City and the other actual Sim x games (though I never played a Sims game); though I'm not sure if I was aware of Will Wright--the guy behind all of that at the time.

It was a great article and I enjoyed learning the history about all of this, but I had a suspicion that the game as detailed here sounded near impossible. I thought, "wow--that sounds like an amazing game! It will probably cost about $200 considering the hours and team that must be involved to make that sort of thing!"

Some time later, Spore came out, and it was terrible.

Fast forward to a year ago, I read this article. I hadn't heard about No Man's Sky by May of last year (I don't follow gaming anything, so games sneak up on me, and I am fine with that). I thought, holy shitballs that sounds amazing! Then I quickly realized that this game will not be the game in the article. This stuff simply is not going to happen, and certainly not anywhere close to that with the small development team that is mentioned in the article. I did recall reading the Spore article years before, and thought the same thing would happen. Love the New Yorker, but when you come into those subjects with a bit more experience on the matter than the author of the article, you realize that these pieces are a bit puffier than they should be--not accusing them of being misleading, just that these "wow, look at this technology!" articles tend to leave out a lot of the reality of what can actually be done in the mentioned time frame

As bad as the gaming media has been with hyping this game, they've at least offered some cautionary points prior to release (or maybe that was all in my head). When you go outside of those walls and see that a small game like this without a big name (no Super Mario 3) is suddenly gaining mainstream attention, you know something is up.

Apparently, Jack Kennedy (the patriarch Kennedy) once commented about the panic leading up to the market crash in '29, and how he knew something bad was coming: "Once I started getting stock tips from my shoe-shine boy, I knew it was time to get out."

I understand the comparison to spore, and I get the same feeling just not to the same extent. The biggest difference for me is the TYPE of game was what I expected in NMS, where as Spore was wildly different than what I was led to believe. I think after playing for a couple hours in Spore it turned into a terrible RTS game, and I was flabbergasted. I don't remember ever hearing it was going to be an RTS game after you "evolved" past a certain point. I remember expecting a game like "Flow" where you eat to grow, then you grow large enough to make it to land and it's a 3rd person action game. After a while you multiply more and it turns into an RTS, and that's when I shut it off. Not only were the first two modes not all that fun, the RTS portion was completely different than what I expected.

At least with NMS I got the 1st person exploration game I expected. I had fun with it, and I don't feel nearly as cheated as I did with Spore. The scale of game that NMS was hinted to be was above what was delivered, but at least I got the same type of game I expected... just not as deep as hoped.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
20,839
3,171
126
48% negative feedback on steam.
This game looks like its done...
 

DrunkenSano

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2008
3,892
490
126
I'm definitely waiting for it to drop to $20. A few of my friends who bought the game lost interest after a week of playing. They tell me that after a few days, it got repetitive.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
20,839
3,171
126
drop to 20 dollars?
i dont think i would even pay that much.
it would have to drop to like 9-15 dollars for me to consider it.

But yeah, the negative feedback is starting to hit hard.
Hello games is gonna take a very hard popularity hit after this for PC.
 

Sabrewings

Golden Member
Jun 27, 2015
1,942
35
51
They're pumping out patches. I'm eager to see what they make of it. I played some more of it last night and it's still fun to me, despite not being exactly what the E3 videos showed.
 

TallBill

Lifer
Apr 29, 2001
46,044
62
91
I'm definitely waiting for it to drop to $20. A few of my friends who bought the game lost interest after a week of playing. They tell me that after a few days, it got repetitive.

I don't know how this wasn't obvious. I may pick it up some day for $10 but probably not even then.
 

KMFJD

Lifer
Aug 11, 2005
29,043
41,727
136
i-WmKP2FR-2100x20000.jpg


Penny Arcade sums it up for me as well, after over 30 hours i'm done...
 

DrunkenSano

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2008
3,892
490
126
I don't know how this wasn't obvious. I may pick it up some day for $10 but probably not even then.

To me it was pretty obvious, that is why I haven't purchased the game yet. A couple of my friends either had higher hopes or were just swept up by the hype train that came through. I'm very, very wary of pre-ordering anything these days or even supporting anything ever since the MWO way back when.
 

KentState

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2001
8,397
393
126
After watching the Anger Joe review, there has to be some majors updates before I invest my time.

 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
I agree I won't pay full price for this, it's needs more to do and more structure.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
Listened to a discussion about the game today. They decided it was a great gaming experience, but average at best as a game. They are looking forward to how someone takes this presentation and expands it to better gameplay.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,509
29,090
146
They're pumping out patches. I'm eager to see what they make of it. I played some more of it last night and it's still fun to me, despite not being exactly what the E3 videos showed.

I hope so, because I do want to pick up this game and try it out, but I want it to be worth my time/$. We can go back to the beginning of this thread and many of those critical assumptions from some of us came out to be true, and probably even worse than true. But I wish that they weren't--I was hoping that this game would actually have more depth than what was presented, but it doesn't seem to.

This release is very difficult for a new? studio like Hello Games. If they are now being honest with their desire to support this game with patches and content updates and they deliver, it will still be a major uphill battle for them to regain consumer trust because this is currently the only reputation they have. Though to be completely fair, a lot of this untoward hyping early on in development of this game is more the responsibility of Sony that wanted to promote a revolutionary game that never was going to exist; but this lead developer either seemed incapable of closing the doors on this and keeping progress in development out of the news, or is just simply a guy that relished the publicity.

This really is a game, now, that should have been released at a $20-30 price tag with less than a year of marketing and a real Indy status. Perception of the game and Hello Studios would be vastly improved, imo. Lack of structure and goals wouldn't be a real concern as long as there is a clear path from the developers for content updates. As mentioned before, there are other free games out there that pretty much do all that NMS does, and seem to do it a bit better right now--even in early development.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
This release is very difficult for a new? studio like Hello Games.

I think TotalBiscuit said it best when he said something along the lines of "From the studio that brought you Joe Danger 1 and 2 comes a massive, fully procedurally generated universe exploration game!"
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
33,929
1,097
126
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/tech/gam...aid-Xbox-One-release-PC-PS4-Review-Best-Deals

No Mans Sky is already massive, with 18 quintillion planets which will already take a lifetime to explore and visit.

But the creator, Sean Murray has already spoken extensively about how he intends to update the game moving forward, putting it into the same bracket as games such as Minecraft and Don't Starve.

Talking to Daily Star Online, Murray told us he was "perhaps naive" for suggesting he wants No Man's Sky to have nothing but free updates.

As part of this promise it would see "new content and new features" added continuously to the game, in the hope of building a community of players who would plough 300/400+ hours into the space-adventure for years ahead.

Already, Murray has teased fans by suggesting that the games next update would add " the ability to build bases and own giant space freighters".

But when pushed on whether the game will always remain free, Murray couldn't categorically rule out paid for DLC further down the line, explaining that it could happen if "Maybe in the future there’s some reason why we just couldn’t possibly afford to do a certain feature without charging for it".

With a game already so massive, it's hard to imagine what Hello Games could want to add that's so extensive it would require a paid-for expansion in the first place.
 

DrunkenSano

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2008
3,892
490
126
They already overcharged people for the current game and they want to charge more? That is very disappointing to hear.
 

Sabrewings

Golden Member
Jun 27, 2015
1,942
35
51
I hope so, because I do want to pick up this game and try it out, but I want it to be worth my time/$. We can go back to the beginning of this thread and many of those critical assumptions from some of us came out to be true, and probably even worse than true. But I wish that they weren't--I was hoping that this game would actually have more depth than what was presented, but it doesn't seem to.

This release is very difficult for a new? studio like Hello Games. If they are now being honest with their desire to support this game with patches and content updates and they deliver, it will still be a major uphill battle for them to regain consumer trust because this is currently the only reputation they have. Though to be completely fair, a lot of this untoward hyping early on in development of this game is more the responsibility of Sony that wanted to promote a revolutionary game that never was going to exist; but this lead developer either seemed incapable of closing the doors on this and keeping progress in development out of the news, or is just simply a guy that relished the publicity.

This really is a game, now, that should have been released at a $20-30 price tag with less than a year of marketing and a real Indy status. Perception of the game and Hello Studios would be vastly improved, imo. Lack of structure and goals wouldn't be a real concern as long as there is a clear path from the developers for content updates. As mentioned before, there are other free games out there that pretty much do all that NMS does, and seem to do it a bit better right now--even in early development.

If the game was what we were shown in the trailers that are on the store page for it right now, I'd be happy with it. As it is, it's missing a lot.

I tried to get a refund (nothing to lose) citing the mounting evidence of misleading marketing and asking for leniency on the hours stipulation due to needing to get off the starting planet to get an idea of just how different it is. Even willing to take store credit, but Steam shot me down. They're just making GOG's case stronger in this market...

They already overcharged people for the current game and they want to charge more? That is very disappointing to hear.

Must be a British thing. Frontier, Elite: Dangerous's devs and also British, follow a similar model. "Here's this huge galaxy with all of these star systems and planets! Oh, want to land on those planets? That'll be more."
 

Linux23

Lifer
Apr 9, 2000
11,303
671
126
If the game was what we were shown in the trailers that are on the store page for it right now, I'd be happy with it. As it is, it's missing a lot.

I tried to get a refund (nothing to lose) citing the mounting evidence of misleading marketing and asking for leniency on the hours stipulation due to needing to get off the starting planet to get an idea of just how different it is. Even willing to take store credit, but Steam shot me down. They're just making GOG's case stronger in this market...



Must be a British thing. Frontier, Elite: Dangerous's devs and also British, follow a similar model. "Here's this huge galaxy with all of these star systems and planets! Oh, want to land on those planets? That'll be more."

that's a no go with Steam? that sucks. i didn't know their return policy since this is the only game that i needed to get a refund on.

should i even try to reason with Steam?
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
33,929
1,097
126
If the game was what we were shown in the trailers that are on the store page for it right now, I'd be happy with it. As it is, it's missing a lot.

I tried to get a refund (nothing to lose) citing the mounting evidence of misleading marketing and asking for leniency on the hours stipulation due to needing to get off the starting planet to get an idea of just how different it is. Even willing to take store credit, but Steam shot me down. They're just making GOG's case stronger in this market...

Weird. I got a no-questions-asked refund on the new Doom game. I do think they need to extend the time during which they allow refunds.
 

Sabrewings

Golden Member
Jun 27, 2015
1,942
35
51
that's a no go with Steam? that sucks. i didn't know their return policy since this is the only game that i needed to get a refund on.

should i even try to reason with Steam?

They say it's case by case, but I feel like it wasn't even considered. I might open a separate support ticket and try to talk to a person about it.
 
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