I picked up the collector's edition like a month back since it was on sale. Haven't gotten to the game yet but looks like I was wise to hold off.
Well, he posts again, but he has never really answered anything.
He screwed up.. big time. I think he and HG understand that.
Actions speak louder than words, and in the past year they've been patching and improving the game.
I hope people can finally move past what happened. The game should have been this from day 1, but it wasn't. At least they didn't just take the money and run.
I agree that it's a positive thing, that they are continuing to work to make the game better. As you say, at least they didn't just cut out.
Still, I think it would have better for him to issue a sincere apology and take full responsibility for misleading people. I think that can go a long way to rebuilding trust and credibility with the gaming community, at least with some of it -- although, of course, many people will continue to hate.
To be fair, there was a class action lawsuit (or at least a serious threat from one). An apology is also an admission of guilt.
I agree that it's a positive thing, that they are continuing to work to make the game better. As you say, at least they didn't just cut out.
Still, I think it would have better for him to issue a sincere apology and take full responsibility for misleading people. I think that can go a long way to rebuilding trust and credibility with the gaming community, at least with some of it -- although, of course, many people will continue to hate.
Issue an apology? Why? And I mean that honestly. Why is HG at fault here and not the publisher, who quite clearly oversold the game and dizzied the developer with the amount of money they could throw at them for promotion and advertising.
No, he doesn't need to issue an apology at all. The way you make up for disappointment is to deliver on what you said you'd do. It might have taken a year but that's what they have done.
Because he was the one out there making the inflated promises and raising people's expectations. Because he was the one who chose the words that were untrue. Because he was the head of the development team that failed to deliver what he said they would deliver. Because it's his game, and he was the spokesman for it.
I'm a firm believer that if you screw up, you own up -- you hold yourself accountable. Naturally you have to follow through as well, but a sincere apology and acknowledgement of responsibility would've gone a long way to rebuilding trust and credibility. Hiding under the desk only further damages that.
But as Kerosene said, he may have had legal advice to not admit any wrongdoing. I get that.
p.s. Here's what he did say:
https://nowloading.co/p/no-mans-sky-atlas-update-details/4344392
So over promised and under delivered? Just like a ton of other games that have been released. Personally I believe the publisher is just as much at fault here. Do you think they'll apologise? Of course not.
I stand by my comment. Gamers take themselves and games in general far to seriously. Sony hyped the game, the Dec over promised and gamers bought into it. It happens all the time. Yes it's bad practice but it's nothing new.
It was much worse than the average game's "over-promise, under-deliver," so no, I don't see that as equivalent.
Sony probably bears some responsibility, too. They obviously failed to prepare him to talk with the media effectively. Is that the publisher's responsibility? I don't know. I imagine they thought that his non-scripted authenticity and passion would carry the day (it did win a lot of people over). They put out some promo videos which were big exaggerations (think of the one lampooned with the harmonica). Maybe it needs to be a joint apology. They clearly underestimated his ability to put his foot in his mouth. He had no idea how to deal with the press or manage expectations.
I'm not saying it wasn't a difficult, unprecedented situation for him. No doubt it was overwhelming, to be the focus of that much attention.
I can't feel too sorry for him, though. He benefited greatly from it. I expect he's a millionaire, based on one indie game. The sales were fueled by his hype and his inaccurate statements. It was his game, and he was the main spokesman. There's just no getting around that.
He should do the right thing and hold himself accountable. I guess he's not going to do that. Hopefully it's because of legal reasons and not because he's a chicken or a weasel.
Issue an apology? Why? And I mean that honestly. Why is HG at fault here and not the publisher, who quite clearly oversold the game and dizzied the developer with the amount of money they could throw at them for promotion and advertising.
No, he doesn't need to issue an apology at all. The way you make up for disappointment is to deliver on what you said you'd do. It might have taken a year but that's what they have done.
Oh I reckon he holds himself accountable alright.
The game has been improving since its disastrous launch. I don't feel sorry for him either. Clearly he made a serious mistake in over stating expectations for the game. I'm not disagreeing with any of that. It's this idea that he needs to issue an apology. Aside from the fact that legally it would probably be seen as an admission of guilt, I really don't think it was as bad as the witch hunt made it out to be. I mean there was people stalking his office for gods sake. Over hyped, yes. Under delivered, absolutely. Over reaction from pgamers? Without a doubt.
What's kind of funny is that the story of the game is probably more interesting than the actual game.
May be a little misunderstanding there. When I say "hold yourself accountable," I don't mean just in the privacy of your head. I mean openly acknowledge it to the people you're accountable to.
Well, you don't think it was bad enough to apologize for. I do. I guess we'll leave it at that.
lol, true.
That would still be HG as they published it on PC but Its mostly the comments of Sean Murray that led to people feeling like they are misled. Overhyped and disappointing games are common so you have to try and figure out what made this game different from the others and that was Sean Murray. Looking back lots of things he said come off as lies even though I'm sure that wasn't his intention.
Yeah I suppose the real crux of it all is in that very word - intent. We'll never really know if he just got over excited about a project he was passionate about and not really understanding the consequences of having a global stage to talk the game up, or if he deliberately misled people, which is what lots of gamers seem to think. Personally, I think it's the first situation. If it was the second, then yes, not only should be apologize but he and Sony should have refunded money. As it was pointed out earlier that very well could be the reason he's not apologising as he doesn't want it interrupted as an admission of guilt.
The fact that Sony gave refunds (something they never do) is the proof that something out of the ordinary happened here.
Yeah but it wasn't a product recall and they never accepted that the game wasn't as displayed, as I guess that's close to accepting liability. In fact an advertising standards ruling went in their favour if you remember. So a few gamers getting refunds is nothing exceptional in my opinion. Most high profile games have people who complain and demand refunds.
Demand maybe but Sony never gives them. My point wasn't about them accepting liability its about it being clear that this wasn't just a normal case of over promise and under deliver
this is a gem of a game that i've never had a problem with in what it delivers.
yes, i'd like it to deliver more (as it has over the months since release), but i was happy with it on release and i'm constantly amazed at what a small group of devs could achieve following on from Joe Danger.
something that is not in the game that i know of so far is the ability to rescue downed pilots and if that was added, this would be my 10/10 space game.
The biggest thing I missed that was meant to be in the game was the ability to land on the dark side of the planet away from the sun. That just really appealed to me for some reason. Too bad it never it in.