No Man's Sky fans are buying a billboard to thank its developer

midian182

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Recap: Has there ever been a gaming story quite like No Man’s Sky? After it faced ridicule and disappointment following its launch in 2016, the space exploration sim was slowly updated and eventually became the title that was promised. Now, fans are thanking developer Hello Games for its work by buying a billboard near its offices.

With pre-release trailers showing a procedurally generated universe containing 18 quintillion planets, large-scale space battles, and more, anticipation surrounding its release was so high that Hello Games’ boss Sean Murray received death threats when the game was delayed by two months in 2016.

Also read: The Unexpected Success of No Man's Sky

While No Man’s Sky was popular upon launch, that soon changed when people discovered it didn’t live up to its pre-release videos and lacked elements such a multiplayer. The numerous bugs didn’t help, either. The negative response led to calls for refunds and complaints about misleading ads, and saw Steam banning Bullshots from its listings. By late September, its number of concurrent Steam users had dropped from 212,604 to fewer than 1,000 in just over a month.

While some developers might have given up at this point, Murray and Hello Games continued to work on updates that brought No Man’s Sky closer to the game many were expecting. The new features and graphical overhauls worked, and by July 2018 NMS had climbed into Steam’s top 10, reaching 90,651 concurrent players and with its rating moving from Mixed to Very Positive.

As a way of saying thanks for their hard work, organizer Cam G and the r/NoMansSkyTheGame community started a GoFundMe campaign to raise $1,750 to buy a billboard near Hello Games’ office in Guildford, UK. It’s already at $3,010 after just one day.

Cam G says he’s open to changing the design of the board, which will be shown for two weeks from 12 August.

"Billboards are booked months even up to years in advance, we were lucky enough to be offered a 2 week campaign within a 2 minute drive of the Hello Games office in Guildford, UK," he wrote. "The closest available time slot was a 2 week period from 12 Aug 2019," he wrote.

The money will also go toward buying lunch and a case of beer for the Hello Games team. As for the rest of the cash, Cam G says he plans to use it to start a "charity drive" that will buy games and donate them to disadvantaged and sick children.

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Hate HelloGames or Not, they have done something that I don't see a lot of game developers or publishers do a lot or SHOULD do a lot. When you have a game that needs fixing or incomplete, then fix it. People payed money for it and they should have what they deserve. Ya, I'm looking at you Bethesda.

Bethesda seriously needs to fix Fallout 76...hell they need to release a new patch for Fallout 3 and 4 if you ask me cause without the unoffical patch, the game constantly break and crash all the time.
 
Hate HelloGames or Not, they have done something that I don't see a lot of game developers or publishers do a lot or SHOULD do a lot. When you have a game that needs fixing or incomplete, then fix it. People payed money for it and they should have what they deserve. Ya, I'm looking at you Bethesda.

Bethesda seriously needs to fix Fallout 76...hell they need to release a new patch for Fallout 3 and 4 if you ask me cause without the unoffical patch, the game constantly break and crash all the time.
Most developers don't get the chance to do what Hello Games did because they did not release a game with 20% of the promised features, you know? Fallout 76 can't be fixed, just completely redesigned, and I heard they are doing something about it but I don't know if they will spend money basically making a new game.
 
"Kudos to developers, they turned disaster into a promised game (mostly anyway)"
Sad times we gamers live in - Thank you, you ripped us off, but in the end, you did listen and made the game we wanted.

I am really glad Hello games were able to fix their game and deliver. But making "you made it posters" seems really stupid and downright counterproductive.
 
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Hate HelloGames or Not, they have done something that I don't see a lot of game developers or publishers do a lot or SHOULD do a lot. When you have a game that needs fixing or incomplete, then fix it. People payed money for it and they should have what they deserve. Ya, I'm looking at you Bethesda.

Bethesda seriously needs to fix Fallout 76...hell they need to release a new patch for Fallout 3 and 4 if you ask me cause without the unoffical patch, the game constantly break and crash all the time.
Add Skyrim to that list. Without the Unofficial Patch it's just a buggy mess.
 
"Thank you Fallout 76 for no single player .... you saved me $60 that I can spend on other games!"
 
Hate HelloGames or Not, they have done something that I don't see a lot of game developers or publishers do a lot or SHOULD do a lot. When you have a game that needs fixing or incomplete, then fix it. People payed money for it and they should have what they deserve. Ya, I'm looking at you Bethesda.

Bethesda seriously needs to fix Fallout 76...hell they need to release a new patch for Fallout 3 and 4 if you ask me cause without the unoffical patch, the game constantly break and crash all the time.

You can get a working Fallout 3 on GOG ;-)
 
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Hate HelloGames or Not, they have done something that I don't see a lot of game developers or publishers do a lot or SHOULD do a lot. When you have a game that needs fixing or incomplete, then fix it. People payed money for it and they should have what they deserve. Ya, I'm looking at you Bethesda.

Bethesda seriously needs to fix Fallout 76...hell they need to release a new patch for Fallout 3 and 4 if you ask me cause without the unoffical patch, the game constantly break and crash all the time.
Add Skyrim to that list. Without the Unofficial Patch it's just a buggy mess.
Add any Bethesda game to the list :D
 
Hate HelloGames or Not, they have done something that I don't see a lot of game developers or publishers do a lot or SHOULD do a lot. When you have a game that needs fixing or incomplete, then fix it. People payed money for it and they should have what they deserve. Ya, I'm looking at you Bethesda.

Bethesda seriously needs to fix Fallout 76...hell they need to release a new patch for Fallout 3 and 4 if you ask me cause without the unoffical patch, the game constantly break and crash all the time.

Most developers don't have to because they don't bait and switch fans in the first place.

The face that hello games is getting praise shows how retarded some people actually are.
The studio and their leader Sean scamming Murray should be hanged as an example to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.

Some people are too quick to forgive and forget.
 
Let's be fair, Apple charging $999 for a piece of metal that cost them $25 is SOOO not the same as a $60 game being released and making steady, and arguably amazing, progress over three years. Context is important. Let's keep things in proper perspective shall we?
Yeah, when you buy the Pro Stand at least you get all of it, not just a couple of screws.
 
Seriously? The game worked, and you could play it. It had it's issues(most of which were blown out of proportion), but it was playable and fun. With the Apple stand, you get a piece of metal worth 1/40th it's asking price. Yes, such a great comparison... (n) (N)
The game worked, so does Apples Pro Stand, you remember their slogan? It just works! Anyway, you could play NMS but it was a shell of a game, it's like if Cyberpunk turned out to be just an empty world at release and everything you saw in the trailer was fake. That's what NMS was like. Absolutely nothing was blown out of proportions as you say, people rightfully complained about many missing features. If you found that fun, that's fine but you still got scammed cause you didn't get the product that was advertised, not even close. Now after 2-3 years they got the game to where it's supposed to be with money they took from people by blatantly lying to them about the game and you think that's fine. Do you have any self respect?
 
"Kudos to developers, they turned disaster into a promised game (mostly anyway)"
Sad times we gamers live in - Thank you, you ripped us off, but in the end, you did listen and made the game we wanted.

I am really glad Hello games were able to fix their game and deliver. But making "you made it posters" seems really stupid and downright counterproductive.

There are two reasons that the No Man's Sky community is demonstrating unprecedented loyalty despite the launch debacle. The less important reason is that Hello Games has added significantly more content (free of charge) then what was promised at launch. More importantly, the devs have surveyed their fan base to determine what changes were most requested and desired and have implemented those features, even when it wasn't part of their original vision for the game. Basebuilding was never an intended feature for the game, but the basebuilding system is now robust and there are entire communities dedicated to creating and sharing bases, even going so far as to set aside entire planets which exist only for visiting player-made bases.
 
Perhaps, but the NMS devs didn't ask $1000 for something that has a value less than $100. Apple is. It doesn't matter if it works, Apple is engaging in what can only be described as predatory business practices. The NMS devs made a game and charged normal game prices for it.
Why are you so upset over Apple? In my original comment, I made a joke about their fanbase, I'm not trying to compare Apple and Hello Games. Pro Stand is not even meant to sell, it's just there for grabbing attention. Let it go.


I would say that about Final Fantasy 7 & 8 and Doom2016. Subjective opinion, not shared by everyone.
Who was talking about these games? It is absolutely irrelevant to what I'm saying.


Have you actually played NMS? Did you play it then? I have and did. Where I come from, there's an old saying, and you're full of it.
I did a little bit but this is not a game that I would ever care for even if it was finished and even if it was free. At it's absolute best it is garbage.

I think I will judge whether or not I got my $40 worth or got scammed, Thank You.
If I sell you a Ferrari but it turns out it's an old Honda Civic I scammed you. Now you may like the Civic for some reason but I still sold you a different product than what was advertised. So you got scammed, but the worst thing about it is you are fine with it. Fallout 76 duffel bags fiasco comes to mind.
Lied? No. Was the game perfect? No. But they didn't lie. What happened is they shared too much of the vision they had for the game long term and didn't deliver it all upon release. They have since FAR exceeded that original vision in both scope and quality proving that they were both honest about their intentions but also their actions. No Man's Sky had a rocky start, but it has become one of the best games money can buy. I think the devs have properly and fully redeemed themselves from shallow, small-minded and narrow focused criticism.
He absolutely lied about it, this is not up for discussion. Only deranged fanboys can even try and defend this. You sound like you're on full damage control mode with the whole "shared too much vision", it is hilarious. Are you their PR guy? Cause it sure sounds like it.

I'm not the one defending Apple selling a $25 chunk of metal for $1000. I find it very interesting and dubious that you fail to address that point directly.
Where was I defending Apple? I was making fun of them. Are you one of these people who read one thing and then assume a bunch of different things I didn't say and then argue against the things you imagined in your brain?
 
I rather enjoyed the original NMS, despite the bleak nothingness of the galaxy, with not much to do, nor much to see; just aimlessly pottering about in my ship. To me, it fit the point that space is mostly empty rather well; the latest version just seems busy and fussy.
 
Thankyou Hello games for blatantly lying to the community about your latest game you wanted money to preorder. Then upon huge amount of criticism and pressure from the deceived user base you decided to fix the game.

I’m really glad that the game has been delivered and is now a decent game. But personally I feel this company should be condemned and not thanked.
 
They were mentioned as an example for context, something that seems to be escaping you.

You actually still don't understand what I'm talking about do you? I did play DOOM and the game is absolutely finished, anyone can tell you that. You may not like the game but it was a full game, meaning it had all the features it was supposed to have.

Then by your own admission, you are not qualified to render critical opinion about the game and you calling it "garbage" has as much meaning to prospective and current gamers as rhino droppings in Africa have meaning to a bus driver in New York City.

I don't have to play hundreds of hours to know whether I like the game or not. But that's not the point. The point is Sean Murray was talking about NMS having a bunch of features and...it didn't have them cause Sean was lying. Yet you keep moaning about my subjective opinion on the game which is irrelevant, as is yours.

You have as much right to say I got scammed as I do to render a qualified opinion about how you got scammed paying money to watch a movie(pick one, it doesn't matter which). Both opinions would be as meaningless as they are invalid.

No. If a movie is just bad it's not necessarily a scam, it's just a bad movie. Same can be applied to a game. But in this case, as I already said, regardless of whether the game is good or bad in your opinion, it came without many important features which were promised. They sold you half the game, maybe even less of what they promised for the full price. You got rinsed.

Grasping at straws with that one, are we..

How? I said Sean promised a bunch of ****, gave you a half-assed game and you're trying to spin it as "they shared too much of the vision". That's laughable. No, they outright ****ed you over and you seem to love it.

As your responses clearly seem to be more about ego than rational thought and debate, I'm out.
Don't you dare talk about rational thought.
 
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