'No Man's Sky' developer Hello Games breaks radio silence, announces Foundation Update

[Shawn Knight]

No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games said on Friday that it will soon be releasing an update to the troubled game that’s described as the first small step in a longer journey.

In a brief post on its website, the developer said that immediately after the release of No Man’s Sky, they spent six weeks rolling out seven patches across both PlayStation 4 and PC (the last of which – v1.09 – went live on September 24).

In the nearly nine weeks since then, the team has been hard at work on the development, testing and certification of what they’re calling the Foundation Update. As the name suggests, the update lays the foundations for base building and other things to come although Hello Games didn’t elaborate any further.

The team also noted that despite its radio silence, they’ve been listening to the “intense and dramatic” discussion around No Man’s Sky since its release – both positive and negative – and are focusing on improving a game that the team loves and feels so passionately about.

PC Gamer brings up a valid question in response to the news – is base building what players really want at this point? No Man's Sky is built around the idea of space exploration which means, you know, getting out there and exploring space, not settling down and building a colony on a single planet but I digress.

The Foundation Update will be release this week, we’re told.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/67184-no-man-sky-developer-hello-games-breaks-radio.html

 

[psycros]

It kind of makes sense that "outposts" would be an important part of a game like this. Not full-blown colonies, mind you, but something more akin to Factorio-style automated resource processing stations. After all, exploring a vast universe should probably require manufacturing consumable resources (fuel, etc) for increasingly capable and demanding spaceships. If at some point they wanted to add a real base management aspect to the game they would already have much of the groundwork in place. I don't know much about NMS but it might be cool if at some point your interstellar shenanigans attracted the attention of other space-faring races. Maybe they would start sending down their own explorers to try and claim valuable resources on the worlds you visit..and then who knows what might happen.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Updating NMS is as useless as updating The Division.

 

[Puiu]

Updating NMS is as useless as updating The Division.

if they deliver multiple big updates people will play it.

 

[Endarial]

It kind of makes sense that "outposts" would be an important part of a game like this. Not full-blown colonies, mind you, but something more akin to Factorio-style automated resource processing stations. After all, exploring a vast universe should probably require manufacturing consumable resources (fuel, etc) for increasingly capable and demanding spaceships. If at some point they wanted to add a real base management aspect to the game they would already have much of the groundwork in place. I don't know much about NMS but it might be cool if at some point your interstellar shenanigans attracted the attention of other space-faring races. Maybe they would start sending down their own explorers to try and claim valuable resources on the worlds you visit..and then who knows what might happen.

The thing is, every planet you "discover" already has aliens living on it. There are alien outposts and space ports all over the planets, not to mention robotic "security guards". That's one of the complaints with the game. It's supposed to be about discovery, yet every planet has been populated already. I'm sure people don't mind that on some planets, but when a game has 18 quintillion planets and they are ALL populated, it gets to be a bit much.

 

[jarvis54]

Well damn

 

[hahahanoobs]

Updating NMS is as useless as updating The Division.

if they deliver multiple big updates people will play it.

No, they won't. When a game is that bad for this long, it's over.

 

[Evernessince]

Updating NMS is as useless as updating The Division.

if they deliver multiple big updates people will play it.

I think his point was that the damage is already done. Sure more people might play it but they won't get massively more sales.

 

[davislane1]

Updating NMS is as useless as updating The Division.

if they deliver multiple big updates people will play it.

I think his point was that the damage is already done. Sure more people might play it but they won't get massively more sales.

Yep. Remember Driveclub? Launched delayed with a bunch of missing features. They eventually delivered on what was promised but their initial blunder couldn't be overcome. NMS is in an even worse boat with even bigger blunders. Not good!

 

[Puiu]

Yep. Remember Driveclub? Launched delayed with a bunch of missing features. They eventually delivered on what was promised but their initial blunder couldn't be overcome. NMS is in an even worse boat with even bigger blunders. Not good!

Drive Club did fairly well after the updates. It received really good reviews for the new tracks, cars, etc.

 

[davislane1]

Drive Club did fairly well after the updates. It received really good reviews for the new tracks, cars, etc.

You've missed the point. Launching a broken promise kills the longevity of the brand. Yes, Driveclub did well after the updates. Yes, critics gave it good reviews. And, having owned it since launch, I can tell you it is well deserved. It was also not enough to recover from the early fault, which is why Evolution Studios was shut down and you won't be seeing Driveclub 2.

NMS is in the same boat. Even if they deliver on the original hype a year down the road it won't fix the brand damage caused by the initial release. "No Man's Sky" and "Hello Games" are done as brands because they are now synonyms for 'fiction.'

 

[alabama man]

Just admit you can't make games and give refunds to everyone who wants. Trying to fix things will only lose you money and depress you after you notice all the work you did was in vain.

 

[Manuarg]

Yep. Remember Driveclub? Launched delayed with a bunch of missing features. They eventually delivered on what was promised but their initial blunder couldn't be overcome. NMS is in an even worse boat with even bigger blunders. Not good!

Drive Club did fairly well after the updates. It received really good reviews for the new tracks, cars, etc.

Same as Final Fantasy XIV

 

[Uncle Al]

Updating NMS is as useless as updating The Division.

if they deliver multiple big updates people will play it.

No, they won't. When a game is that bad for this long, it's over.

It's Never over until the fat lady sings!!! Of course, as long as it's taken, she's had lots and lots of practice ..... LOL

 

[pencea]

Drive Club did fairly well after the updates. It received really good reviews for the new tracks, cars, etc.

You've missed the point. Launching a broken promise kills the longevity of the brand.'

It does happen but there can always be exceptions. Take for Final Fantasy XIV, it was launched with an awful design, buggy, broken, unintuitive interface with critics and fans panning the game as one of the worst MMO of all times. It substantially damaged the Final Fantasy brand. Square Enix even acknowledged how bad it was and their president even issues an apology to fans.

A few years down the line Sqaure Enix completely updated and overhauled the game & re-released it as Final Fantasy A Realm Reborn. It retifies everything that was wrong with the original released. Now it's one of the most profitable game for them and being universally regarded as one of the best MMO games of all times by both critics and fans alike.

The point is this proves that you can still win back the fanbase and players provided the new updates fixes upon what the original did wrong, & No Mans Sky still has a chance too.

 

[davislane1]

A few years down the line Sqaure Enix completely updated and overhauled the game & re-released it as Final Fantasy A Realm Reborn. It retifies everything that was wrong with the original released. Now it's one of the most profitable game for them and being universally regarded as one of the best MMO games of all times by both critics and fans alike.

The point is this proves that you can still win back the fanbase and players provided the new updates fixes upon what the original did wrong, & No Mans Sky still has a chance too.

You've missed the point also. I am talking about brand damage on an IP.

"Final Fantasy" the brand is capable of withstanding major misfires because part of that brand identity includes the occasional failure--a brand identity that spans almost 30 years with some real gems. It's this same type of lengthy brand history that enables Capcom to release terrible Resident Evil (5 and 6) games without going out of business.

No Man's Sky was a failure on launch (no pun intended). This is fundamentally different from dropping a bomb after 30 years of success.

Same goes for Square Enix vs Hello Games. The "Square" brand is associated with some very successful productions that people are more than willing to pay for (as evidenced by the successful price gouging they do on mobile). Hello Games is associated with lying crooks.

To your point about FFXIV: when they turned around FFXIV, they did more than just patch what was broken. They did what all MMO publishers do: they rebranded it. (From Final Fantasy XIV: Online to Final Fantasy XIV: A Real Reborn.)

No Man's Sky, the brand, is done and there is nothing they can do about it. Its only historical identity is as an unmitigated failure. Moreover, Hello Games, the brand, is associated with empty promises. That's a very high hurdle to clear for future success.

Like Driveclub, mending broken fences with updates will not improve the brand or the studio's long-term prospects.They need a new IP under a new studio name--even if that means publishing the exact same game they intended with NMS but under a different title.

The idea is good. The brand is over.

 

[Puiu]

You've missed the point also. I am talking about brand damage on an IP.

"Final Fantasy" the brand is capable of withstanding major misfires because part of that brand identity includes the occasional failure--a brand identity that spans almost 30 years with some real gems. It's this same type of lengthy brand history that enables Capcom to release terrible Resident Evil (5 and 6) games without going out of business.

No Man's Sky was a failure on launch (no pun intended). This is fundamentally different from dropping a bomb after 30 years of success.

Same goes for Square Enix vs Hello Games. The "Square" brand is associated with some very successful productions that people are more than willing to pay for (as evidenced by the successful price gouging they do on mobile). Hello Games is associated with lying crooks.

To your point about FFXIV: when they turned around FFXIV, they did more than just patch what was broken. They did what all MMO publishers do: they rebranded it. (From Final Fantasy XIV: Online to Final Fantasy XIV: A Real Reborn.)

No Man's Sky, the brand, is done and there is nothing they can do about it. Its only historical identity is as an unmitigated failure. Moreover, Hello Games, the brand, is associated with empty promises. That's a very high hurdle to clear for future success.

Like Driveclub, mending broken fences with updates will not improve the brand or the studio's long-term prospects.They need a new IP under a new studio name--even if that means publishing the exact same game they intended with NMS but under a different title.

The idea is good. The brand is over.

The "brand" isn't over, end of discussion. What you are doing si just making wild speculations. The fact that it's still making it into the news proves it.
If you need more proof that the game's image is improving greatly just read the comments on the "No Man's Sky | Foundation update trailer | PS4" youtube video from PlayStation EU's channel. People respect the fact that the devs didn't just quit because of all of the negativity and are still working on big updates for the game.

 

[davislane1]

The "brand" isn't over, end of discussion. What you are doing si just making wild speculations. The fact that it's still making it into the news proves it.

Not an argument.

If you need more proof that the game's image is improving greatly just read the comments on the "No Man's Sky | Foundation update trailer | PS4" youtube video from PlayStation EU's channel. People respect the fact that the devs didn't just quit because of all of the negativity and are still working on big updates for the game.

This was addressed in my previous two posts.

 

[ScubaRhys]

So hello games are trying to breathe some life into their dead horse? Only problem is that the race is over. Hello games and no mans sky didn't just lose, the horse bolted into the crowd and caused a massive scene.

Put the dam thing down Sony, no mans sky is dead.

 

[mbrowne5061]

It kind of makes sense that "outposts" would be an important part of a game like this. Not full-blown colonies, mind you, but something more akin to Factorio-style automated resource processing stations. After all, exploring a vast universe should probably require manufacturing consumable resources (fuel, etc) for increasingly capable and demanding spaceships. If at some point they wanted to add a real base management aspect to the game they would already have much of the groundwork in place. I don't know much about NMS but it might be cool if at some point your interstellar shenanigans attracted the attention of other space-faring races. Maybe they would start sending down their own explorers to try and claim valuable resources on the worlds you visit..and then who knows what might happen.

The thing is, every planet you "discover" already has aliens living on it. There are alien outposts and space ports all over the planets, not to mention robotic "security guards". That's one of the complaints with the game. It's supposed to be about discovery, yet every planet has been populated already. I'm sure people don't mind that on some planets, but when a game has 18 quintillion planets and they are ALL populated, it gets to be a bit much.

Sounds like an excuse to play "space imperialist" to me. Too bad NMS sucks too hard, and will for the foreseeable future, to actually be worth spending time on.

 

[RustyTech]

It was a 1.3GB updated! wow!
I haven't fired it up yet, but read the notes, and the fact that things can stack now is nice!

 

[Trillionsin]

Updating NMS is as useless as updating The Division.

if they deliver multiple big updates people will play it.

No, they won't. When a game is that bad for this long, it's over.

I would disagree. You must have no interest in the game to begin with, if that is the case.

I would come back to this game if they made some big overhaul changes. Please note the keywords I used and base your reply on that if you must. lol

 

[Trillionsin]

It was a 1.3GB updated! wow!
I haven't fired it up yet, but read the notes, and the fact that things can stack now is nice!

Considering the entire game was only a few GBs to begin with, that must make a huge difference. This is great news. Still, I must try out a "demo" before purchasing it. I will not purchase this until I deem it satisfactory. lol

 

[Trillionsin]

So hello games are trying to breathe some life into their dead horse? Only problem is that the race is over. Hello games and no mans sky didn't just lose, the horse bolted into the crowd and caused a massive scene.

Put the dam thing down Sony, no mans sky is dead.

I am at least one person who will come back and play this game if they update it, so... uhh... everyone who thinks this is then completely wrong, if not just because of me, but because of hundreds of people who would come back. I do only say hundreds though... lol if you want to consider that dead, then so be it. lol

 

[wiyosaya]

I am sure that I will be flamed for this comment - so flame on, however, I think Star Citizen has done a much better job of releases than what this sounds like. At least SC is NOW telling people what to expect and when, and with previous releases, let it be well known that what was released was nowhere near the final version. As I see it, 'No Man's Sky' falsely gave everyone the impression that it was a finished game. I would not be surprised if it takes 'No Man's Sky' longer than SC, in total, to release a polished game - assuming they make it that far. NMS' funding scheme seems to have been releasing crap then hoping that the funds from that would allow further development.