Since the launch of No Man’s Sky and developer, Hello games has faced criticism and lawsuits about false advertising and promises that didn’t make it into the game. November ended on a high note for No Man’s Sky developer. At the end of November, Hello Games released a content update and received news that the false advertising accusation were not upheld. Could this be the start of a new moment for the game and developer or does it show that the game itself was not ready and external forces played a role in the failure to launch?
The new 1.11 update dubbed the “Foundation Update,” adds new content and revamps aspects of the game that were reported as problematic. According to Hello Games, the update is the foundation for bigger and better updates in the future. It shows that Hello is willing to continue making the game better instead of dropping the game and running with the money.
Most notably, the update adds the ability for players to find and build bases on “home planets.” These bases serve the player by allowing you to hire aliens to do research on other building pieces, resource cultivation through a hydroponics like station, and then build weapons. These bases also serve as places to store resources and your base of operations. It is also possible to purchase massive freighters for a hefty cost to you. These freighters serve the same purpose as bases and are able to be summoned to any place in the galaxy. Travel between your home base and your current position in the galaxy is not as easy as summoning the freighter. Starbases are now outfitted with “portals” so that you can easily be transported back to your base.
The update was so important that Hello Games and Sean Murray broke their media silence since launch to announce the update. Sean Murray, Hello Games founder, tweeted “If you could have lived our lives over the last months, you'd know how meaningful this is. Here's update 1.1”. The break comes after Hello Games has faced criticism and lawsuits regarding false advertising.
The Advertising Standards Authority, or ASA, received 23 reports of false advertising focused on the game’s Steam store page. The ASA’s response specifically states, “Twenty-three complainants, who believed that some of the game content was not as depicted or described, challenged whether the ad was misleading.” The lawsuit went after Valve Corporation and Hello Games for showing images and videos of content that many players did not believe to be in the game.
The ASA did not uphold the accusations stating, “We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 3.11 (Exaggeration), but did not find it in breach.” It should be noted that advertisements and presentation at gaming events are not taken into consideration for this lawsuit. These advertisements showed off gameplay, creatures, and planets from the game. The ASA had this to say about the procedurally generated game, “As such, we considered consumers would understand the images and videos to be representative of the type of content they would encounter during gameplay, but would not generally expect to see those specific creatures, landscapes, battles, and structures. We therefore, considered whether the game and footage provided by Hello Games contained gameplay material of a sufficiently similar type to that depicted in the ad.”
I’m sure Hello Games will continue to develop the game and keep bringing great content to it. Is it enough to keep consumers with the game or is it too late to save the game from being marked as one of the worst launches and games of all time?
