Bottom line is that anyone who's actually been interested in this game will be aware that its a very ambitious game being done by a very small number of people.
That some are now turning on Sean/Hello games with such vitriol because it doesn't do everything they hoped for is a sad commentary on the state of gaming today.
The way certain "gamers" seem to take delight in hating on devs these days is just bizarre to me. To be honest, I saw a backlash coming a mile-off because I could see people building up stuff in their minds' that was realistically unattainable by such a small team. But that being said, this feels nastier and more personal than I expected.
Or maybe a good amount of people are genuinely upset about being misled. Believe it or not the online functionality that the creator of the game discusses in interviews ect.. Got a lot of people interested.
So, misleading those people and even hinting to some online interactivity days before release is pretty fucked up. It doesn't matter that the game is ambitious, that is a completely separate matter.
Hello Games basically just shot themselves in the foot.
I don't know how much the rest of you know about online gaming culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in offline gaming where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in online gaming, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.
What this means is the online gamers, after hearing about this, are not going to want to purchase No Man's Lie for any system, nor will they purchase any of Hello Games games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Hello Games has alienated an entire market with this move.
Hello Games, publicly apologize and refund No Man's Lie purchases or you can kiss your business goodbye