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Advertising Standards launches investigation into No Man's Sky
- Thread starter Gamezone
- Start date
Mobius and pet octopus
Member
Sean has never been radio silent. Just no one uses radios anymore!
I lose a few brain cells every time someone puts bethesda/watch dogs/bioshock infinite in the same category of bullshit as No Man's Sky
I don't even like Watch Dogs or Bioshock Infinite one bit, but at least they seem to be sort of a complete "game" to me as opposed to a rock shooting simulator with a terrible interface that has no ending when the ending was one of the most hyped features
OuterLimits
Member
A decent ending could have somewhat salvaged the missing features in my opinion. However, you essentially get told to go Fuck yourself after warping hundreds of times to get to the Center. Instead of music playing during the ending, a loop of Sean Murray laughing would have been more appropriate.
Speaking of music, that is the one area the game truly delivers on. Love the music in the game.
YianGaruga
Banned
so Hello games got copies and LEs out to retailers all over the world for a simultaneous launch all by themselves?
truly amazing
OuterLimits
Member
If Sony had no involvement, why is the very first screen I see when starting the game "Sony Interactive Entertainment presents"? Did Sean just let Sony put it there for shits and giggles?
Some weird stuff in there but it's good someone is investigating. Some trailers/screens/infos shouldn't be on the Store or official websites anymore (especially the "lack of loading screens" bit).
I have to ask though, where did they show flowing water in trailers? Legit question, I remember seeing a waterfall in a concept art but that's it, would be interesting to see.
Oh the music is awesome. They hired solid people to do that. Too bad their awesome work is mired by being associated with this farce.
Yautja_Warrior
Member
Its hardly the first game to change from an early preview / trailer, to what makes it into the final game, so I really don't have a major issue with NMS, especially if Hello games add in more features like they say they are going to do. Games like this normally grow over time with updates anyway and I would be more annoyed if they don't follow up with that promise and abandon the game now.
sony as well as hello games should be sued into oblivion. an indie game releasing in such a state is the worst.
and there wasnt even a patch or something in the first month... so many people were misleaded into this garbage.
if the game would still be good, i would be ok, but the game is just a buggy pile of trash.
mmorpg companies should be sued too for releasing broken shit.
to all devs=take your fucking time to release working games. have a look at nintendo.
and there wasnt even a patch or something in the first month... so many people were misleaded into this garbage.
if the game would still be good, i would be ok, but the game is just a buggy pile of trash.
mmorpg companies should be sued too for releasing broken shit.
to all devs=take your fucking time to release working games. have a look at nintendo.
Then it should've been sold as an incomplete Early Access title for 15-20 dollars.
The fact that some people keep rationalizing the lies and deceit, and the utter bare-bone product they got in the end, with completely delusional arguments is still mind-blowing.
Sorry, Sean is in another Universe
Imp the Dimp
Member
Just file a complaint? According to the article an investigation on NMS was launched because of numerous complaints. Not sure where you live but consumers are not entirely powerless usually.
Honestly, I hope this sets a precedent for the industry. False advertising sucks and there is no reason to be more lenient with video games than with any other industry.
SiegfriedFM
Member
BRB, suing Capcom because I certainly didn't get a two player mode or a ducking function in Mega Man, despite the manual specifically saying so.
I don't know. I wasn't lied to because I stopped following the media after the first reveals. I had a blast until it turned out that there really wasn't a goal for the center of the galaxy OR checking in with the other travellers. I think the overhype was a combination of the standard AAA media hype + Murray's tendency to go "sure, I guess" to every single question.
I don't know. I wasn't lied to because I stopped following the media after the first reveals. I had a blast until it turned out that there really wasn't a goal for the center of the galaxy OR checking in with the other travellers. I think the overhype was a combination of the standard AAA media hype + Murray's tendency to go "sure, I guess" to every single question.
Spieler Eins
Member
I was just waiting for the backlash ever since people started gullibly projecting totally unrealistic expectations on to an indie developer. Yet I didn't think it would get this crazy, lol. Amazing.
this wasn't garden variety hype or bullshit. It's normal and expected for companies to put a positive spin on their games. Something different happened here. This was extraordinary. Why do you think everyone's talking about it still?
SiegfriedFM
Member
Partly because the internet can't let anything go. But yeah, I missed most of the bullshit promises so that's probably why I'm not enraged.
They can't let it go because something extraordinary happened.
And even if you don't consider any of the false promises and all of the bullshit and the way the game was framed completely dishonestly from top to bottom, it's still a shockingly barren game for $60
This is about the game page on Steam which still contains trailers and screenshots from E3 materials that are not in the game. So internet can't let go because Hello Games can't be bothered to update a damn store page.
FTC
"Concept videos" can protect them from false advertising. Game development changed and some features may be dropped, etc.
Hello is being accused of ongoing blatant lying about features that don't exist (large space combat/factions), not features that were removed during development, without such caveats.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
Yep. Just one of many areas where the marketing and Sean's interviews about the game backfired.
It would have sold less, but generated pretty much no backlash, if they'd just been clear that it's an exploration and resource gathering game with no real purpose beyond that.
But they hyped it up of having a big purpose of getting to the center the galaxy to reveal some mystery, hyped up four pillars of gameplay when the trading and combat is less than half baked and so on.
I still enjoyed it as I had relatively tempered expectations, but still came away pretty underwhelmed. Thankfully I had the "ending" spoiled so I had not qualms using some mods on PC to get to the center quicker after I screwed up the Atlas path as I couldn't be bothered to slog there legitimately as I was bored and already 40+ hours in.
Not bitter about it, I got my money's worth playtime wise, and did really enjoy exploring for the first 25 hours or so. I do hope that the backlash shows other indie devs that they need to be more careful in how they market their games. Unless Sean's plan was just to laugh all the way to the bank on this one game, future reputation as a dev be damned, it clearly isn't a good way to build a studio.
Jacksinthe
Banned
Enough with this from everyone. I've said it a million times:
There is no possible way that any game, through various states of development will fit EVERY narrative in EVERY interview all at the same time. The minute you see a dev do this: red fucking flag.
Talking point: It's so big!
Oh yeah our game is so huge it will be almost impossible to see other players and since you can't see yourself someone will have to tell you what you look like!
Talking point: You can do anything OMG
You can play with friends!
You can land on asteroids/comets!
You can grief other players!
You can sort of customize your character!
Talking point: It's so mysterious!
MP is like Journey or Dark Souls
We want players to have a lasting impact
We want people to know they are in a shared universe
There's just no fucking way any game will fit so many roles all at the same time, at the exact same time of any interview to fit the NARRATIVE of the interview.
There has to be, at some point, a solid grasp of what your game does and at no point was that ever something clarified, it was only answered in the context of every interview and those answers always changed.
Gamedev is difficult, shit does change, but it will never be able to fit the mold presented in question form by any interviewer every damn time ad nauseum.
Sean was the lead, there is nothing he didn't know about the game every moment of every day from concept to release and beyond. This is not a "things change" scenario which is well established in the industry. This goes way beyond that.
And people somehow continue not to grasp it.
You wouldn't think it would be s hard to go to the NMS Steam Store Page, the page that is being investigated, and notice the first thing you see is an auto playing trailer that is completely unrepresentative of the final game.
Are you kidding? They made millions and millions of dollars with NMS, it's one of the most successful indie games ever made.
All the ASA can do is get them to change their advertising, it's not like Hello Games are going to lose any money over this.
Oh my fucking god! Will be interesting to see their conclusions.
Man this has been a fucking crash course for Hello and Sean M.
This is true though:
If this is true fair enough :
It's an assumption but I always guessed they'd just leave that stuff up. It will certainly be on their promotional youtube channels at least.
If not, fair enough, but plenty of smaller developers absolutely leave older footage up.
Man this has been a fucking crash course for Hello and Sean M.
This is true though:
If this is true fair enough :
It's an assumption but I always guessed they'd just leave that stuff up. It will certainly be on their promotional youtube channels at least.
If not, fair enough, but plenty of smaller developers absolutely leave older footage up.
Leaving it on YouTube where it's captioned as something like "E3 2014 Demo Footage" is totally different to having it on the store page where what you see is supposed to be what the product is at the time of purchase.
The pre-release demo material on YouTube isn't the problem and the ASA won't even be looking at that. They'll be looking at what is being used to advertise the game right now on places like the Steam store page.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
People aren't saying this would ruin them, but that their shitty marketing, how many people were hugely disappointed in the game, refunded it (or tried to) and will be unlikely to ever buy another Hello Games product in the future.
Like I said above, if Murray just wanted to laugh all the way to the bank and early retirement on this one game, then job well done. If he wanted to launch a career/studio with a long term successful future, he fucked up pretty badly as he's pretty much completely lost the trust of the community which is super crucial for success of indie devs.
Isn't Hello Games case more deserving of reevaluation from the devs? They knew for months befre launch that this media would be misleading, isn't an accurate representation of your product a normal goal of marketing?
The problem is not that the footage is older, but that it promotes things that are not really in the game.
Holding up to advertised promises = projecting totally unrealistic expectations.
You are a work of art.
The problem here is that gap between what was promised and what we got is HUGE...The game is somewhat good, but i've seen much better indie games getting nowhere near the attention that NMS got, all because of blatant lies.
Shotgun Kiss
Member
If you acknowledge that you missed the bullshit promises, then maybe you should also acknowledge that any opinions you might have are completely uninformed and should be kept to yourself. Making condescending comparisons and accusing people of not being able to let it go, and then admitting you have no context makes you look daft.
I have no horse in this race; I have never had any interest in NMS. But I don't fault people for being upset about being lied to.
bigdaddygamebot
Member
Nope.
But a masterclass in failing at expectation management? You bet.
Were they way fucking in over their head when it came to P.R. ? Most assuredly.
Did they flat out lie? Possibly?
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
I got you covered bro.
Just follow the tutorial according to wherever you live. For future reference for the next time crap like this happens again, since econsumer.gov is a product of a coalition of all kinds of consumer protection agencies across the globe, including the FTC and ASA all complaints filed through them by following this tutorial will find their way to whatever agency it may concern.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
Yep. And all compounded by Sony moneyhatting console exclusivity and giving the game a big budget AAA level presence at E3.
To be fair it goes further than expectations management.
I never expected MP to have any significant place, or even to really be in the game in any meaningfull way, but according to what was being said in interviews and shown on videos I did expect:
- Factions with meaningful consequences to picking a side (right now you can friend all, and all it visibly impacts is being given a third choice in dialogues at times) and ongoing inter-faction wars with capital ships engaging each other
- Galactic Police vs Pirates, possibly gaining wingmen during some operations
- Meaningful Trade ala Frontier Elite, with trade routes between systems
- Planets orbiting around a star, planets rotating
- Worlds becoming harsher and weirder as you would get closer to the Galactic Core
- Functionning Gates, with ancient ruins mysteries (right now ruins are all about languages and if you guess a right answer a chance at getting a crafting recipe you probably already own)
- A tad more variety between worlds/ systems. One of the basic tenants was that life would be in about 10% of planets, and highly evolved life on 10% of that 10%. Well... the fuel/ repair elements are such that every.single.planet has the same base resources (Plutonium, Iron, Zinc, Heridium) and also outposts. Every single of the 18 Quintillion planets has been colonized and has outposts (some planets more sparse than others) and every single system in the universe has a space station, with 1 of 3 races.
- Giant flora and Fauna. It's supposed to be in the game, some people have found files (PC) with models that "should" be giant, but in almost 2 months I have not seen 1 report of a giant creature.
I do like the game a lot for many reasons (chill space flight, some gorgeous landscapes/ lighting, music...) but it honestly fell quite a bit short of what was presented during 2014/ 2015 imo.
There definitely were some lie's made by Sean about alot of the games features.
eyeball_kid
Member
They never showed or promised flowing water.
It sounds like Sean Murray might go on Geoff Keeley's show in October to discuss what happened.
Near the end of this video Geoff says as much
Near the end of this video Geoff says as much
I wonder if Geoff will actually hit him with the hard questions or if he will go ultra easy on him. I can see him being super easy going which is bad since Scumbag Murray hasn't talked to anyone about this and he needs to be pressed for all the info.
World exclusive: No Man's Sky 2: The Real Game
I would say the same, but my long term opinion of the game rests heavily on what they do or don't do with updates.
Nitty_Grimes
Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Haha, I've watched it more times than that I love it.