
No Man’s Sky’s next update will let you explore infinite space in VR - sahin-boydas
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/25/no-mans-sky-vr-beyond/
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ebg13
Can anyone with insight into the games industry explain the financials of
dedicating years to adding material to a failed title for free? How do they
make enough new revenue from new customers that wouldn't otherwise pick it up
to justify the cost of creating all of the new features and material?

~~~
Impossible
NMS is only a failure in the sense of internet backlash. The game sold well
(and afaik continues to do so) and has gotten better reception (recent steam
ratings are mostly positive
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/No_Mans_Sky/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/No_Mans_Sky/))
as new updates have been released over the years.

HN in general has weird standards around game quality considering many of the
users work on software as service start-ups that launch as almost broken MVPs.
I understand NMS asked players to pay $60 up front but they've put their money
where there mouth is and continually supported and updated the game.

~~~
mox1
The "backlash" was mostly centered around the promises made by the game
creator and the demo's they showed.

It had everything to do with what promised / implied vs what was actually
delivered.

If the creator had slapped a Open Beta tag on the box and charged $20 (and
simply upped that number as they got closer to release), everyone would
probably still be talking about it.

But instead they delivered on 25%-50% of what they claimed was in the game.

~~~
naikrovek
Why did you put quotes around 'backlash'? Do you not believe that there was
one, or do you believe the reaction wasn't a backlash?

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haolez
I love this game. It manages to be boring in a good way. It’s so relaxing!

I don’t know how to explain, but I can highly recommend it!

~~~
shostack
I wanted to like it but refunded in < 2hrs due to motion sickness :(

~~~
haolez
Disabling motion blur helped me with that.

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oliyoung
I can't wait for someone like noclip to tell the story of this game's rise and
fall and rise again. They pulled this out of the ashes of one of the worst
launches ever and now it's a huge success

~~~
devoply
It was a huge financial success even if it was a failure at launch. Instead of
running away, they stuck around and fixed their mistakes. It just shows that
money does fix everything as Mark Cuban says.

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dahdum
I can’t hear No Man’s Sky without remembering this wonderful parody of their
launch quality.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vupCgB8H9Og](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vupCgB8H9Og)

~~~
cal5k
I respect the hell out of these guys. They launched to widespread criticism,
and rather than giving up they’ve spent the last few years working hard to
improve their game.

Isn’t that something we can all admire?

~~~
zitterbewegung
The criticism was there because they over promised that it would launch with a
great deal of content that wasn't delivered. Why should we encourage this type
of behavior since it is becoming rampant in the industry to release unfinished
games at all?

~~~
wilg
Unpopular opinion: They didn't actually promise anything that wasn't in the
game at launch or say anything that wasn't true.

~~~
013a
Right... I mean, they said MULTIPLE times that it would have multiplayer. Not
just an implication, but straight up saying "you could encounter other
players, but the likelihood is so tiny because of the size of what we're
building" and that "you can't see yourself, so the only way to know what you
look like is for someone else to see you" (these are direct quotes from Sean
Murray, not paraphrasing). The box even had an ESRB rating for multiplayer
that was covered up with a sticker for one that didn't rate it for
multiplayer, at release.

They said you could grief other players. They said you could customize the
look of your player. They said you could land on comets. They said the animals
eat each other. They said you wouldn't have to ever gather resources if you
wanted (which I guess is _technically_ true if you're alright with also doing
absolutely nothing else the game has to offer beside walking around on your
starting planet).

I guess you could argue that these were all some sort of vision of a "future
state" and not representative of day 1, but there certainly weren't any
qualifications added to the statement in any of his interviews, and there's
plenty of evidence that they actually intended this stuff to be in on day 1
but simply didn't have the time. Which is fine! And I think we should praise
them for committing to turning it into a game that is actually amazing. But
they definitely did betray a lot of players at launch.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8P2CZg3sJQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8P2CZg3sJQ)

~~~
gilgoomesh
I always get annoyed when I see people repeat the quote "you could encounter
other players, but the likelihood is so tiny" as though he was promising see-
your-friends-multiplayer.

The context of that quote was that Sean was explaining why the game had
multiplayer elements like naming rights for discoveries in a shared universe
but the gameplay was primary about solo exploration. It was clear that he
wanted to push the benefits of "shared universe" as a form of multiplayer but
as for literally seeing your friends, he was trying to say "we could code it
into the game but we think it's too unlikely so we won't".

It's obvious that Murray has problems directly saying no. He repeatedly said
"rare", meaning "never". That was his crime.

~~~
Rebelgecko
Is "See your friends" not what he actually promised?[1] Rare certainly doesn't
mean never. In another interview, he said players running into each other will
be rare but will be less rare if more players buy the game, which doesn't make
since if the probability of this happening is always 0.

Even after the game came out he kept up the charade. When two players on the
same planet couldn't see each other he made evasive comments about server
load[2].

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqeN6hj4dZU&t=5m41s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqeN6hj4dZU&t=5m41s)

[2]:
[https://twitter.com/nomanssky/status/763271005003538432](https://twitter.com/nomanssky/status/763271005003538432)

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sebringj
This game keeps getting better. Sean and his team are the best example of
focusing on what matters in the face of backlash even if earned or not. True
grit.

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joduplessis
Nice! Also another good example of how internet-opinion doesn't necessarily
reflect sales.

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jngreenlee
Annnnd...Crickets...is anyone still playing it?

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laHiesh1
2.2 thousand an hour ago. A lot of people still play it.
[https://steamcharts.com/app/275850](https://steamcharts.com/app/275850)

~~~
ddnb
In comparison, Stardew Valley, a small indy game, also released in 2016 has 4x
as many playing but had almost no marketing budget, didn't appear on national
television in interviews and certainly didn't get the same hype, but did
deliver what he promised and delivered a rock solid game at launch.

