The saga regarding No Man's Sky's non-existent online play trucks on, as European gamers have discovered stickers on the limited edition version of the game, obscuring any references to online gameplay. The label includes a PEGI 7 rating and a warning for mild violence, but peeling it back reveals a PEGI 12 rating and an online play icon.
Now, before everyone freaks out and starts sending Sean Murray hate mail, it's very likely that this was simply a printing error on Sony's part, and it was too late in the process to re-manufacture the covers. Still, it's not great timing, considering Hello Games is currently embroiled in a bit of a backlash regarding whether the game has multiplayer or not.
To keep you in the loop, the developer has gone on record numerous times as saying that you'll be able to see other players in the expanses of the universe. However, two people landed on the exact same planet on launch day, and nothing happened. Murray blamed this on server overload, but people have even started analysing the game's packet data, only to discover that it doesn't send out positional data.
Could the feature have been removed at the last minute? We reckon that it's highly unlikely. In the case of these box art labels, we genuinely believe that it's just an innocent error by a graphic designer. What do you reckon, though? An honest mistake or an attempt to conceal misleading communication? Ping your bullsh*t detector in the comments section below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 27
OK, now it's officially a hiccup.
Wasn't there a confirmed case where two people met though? A packet capture isn't enough evidence that it's not a built in feature, because if the communicating server is overloaded and never requests that information, it wouldn't be sent (or it could be telling clients not to provide that information until more resources are available).
Yes or no, Sean. That's all we want. Yes or no.
@NathanUC Two people stood in the exact same spot but nothing happened.
@Grawlog Maybe if you stop being a crybaby about everything your life would be a lot easier. Well if it was there and would need another 6 months to play u rather leave it Or maybe the costs went to high and they scrapped it so they would not get in developer limbo. Just Let it go it is a small developer they had a lot of bad luck. Stop trying to hate a game with a hype because you don't like it.
I find it funny that people are still trying to find excuses when they basically just lied about content. If this was another company or another game, let's say "Destiny, people love to trash on that one, the mobs would be out with pitchforks.
@Athrum You have no proof & murray himself called it a bug.
"Murray blamed this on server overload, but people have even started analysing the game's packet data, only to discover that it doesn't send out positional data."
You can't get anything past gamers lol on another note, let's hope this truly is a bug and gets amended soon. I can say that I've seen groups of ships (2's and 3's) flying overhead so we know the feature is hit or miss.
hopefully PC doesn't have it working first, otherwise people will start raging on the web.
I'm guessing that, at some point in the game's development, online features -were- planned, and that they've since been shelved either due to having very little point, or due to technical issues. The fact Sean has never been upfront about this bothers me, and I think if he had, a lot of the ongoing situation would not have even registered on the radars of most people. I mean, it would have still been a disappointment, and it would have still caused an uproar; but less of one.
I'm also fairly certain the PEGI rating got revised at some point before the game's release, and I can't blame Sony for not wanting to re-print all of those cardboard boxes.
Ultimately, I never really "bought" the idea that I'd be able to see another human being in a huge randomly generated sandbox, so if the feature -has- been removed, or is being tweaked for future addition, that doesn't really bother me. Should still make it clear for those who -do- consider it a dealbreaker, though.
Not every game has to be multi-player jesus, go play cod
@Grawlog Or maybe some of us aren't that bothered about it and are just enjoying the game for what it is rather then reacting to none stories.
Are we getting to the point now where every game that gets hyped has to be hated for every little fault it has, god sake grow up people!!!!
@Grawlog That's because Sean Murray isn't a PR guy and probably doesn't know how to answer the million questions that get thrown at him. I think he would rather just put the game out and let people see for themselves.
Glad i bought this one on steam. Something tells me that refund system is going to come in handy. Here's hoping they prove me wrong and don't botch the pc version.
Good, I don't want another person enter my no man sky universe, it's all mine haha...
@get2sammyb Maybe it's related to time? Same planet but different time because of hyper drive etc, like in the movie interstellar. I hope if there's multiplayer we can disable it in option, seeing planet/animals that has been named by other players is okay, seeing other person is not.
haha, wow what story this is turning out to be.
I don't unstand why thay are being so vague over online features, and why thay would say it had multiplayer in the first place. Its just like anything people want to know what thay are buying & thay are entitled know, it would have been a none issue. I find it all very strange like thay are scared of losing sales or something, if you did this sort of thing in any other industry you would be in hot water.
Really don't see what you'd do even if you could meet up with other people. Dance around the screen in front of them for a few minutes? It's not as if there are raids and strikes to be getting on with.
Well, it is true (check on youtube) that Sean said multiple times that l, despite almost impossible, players could meet in the universe.
After release he chickened out and now he is very vague. Now this about labels on covers....
I think he was lying to fans, the feature was tgere but have been removed....
What about the 'searching for other players' on galactic map?
Anyway, that said, I do not really care about multiplayer personally. NMS is such a Zen, introspective relaxing experience that I am kind of happy to not be bothered by someone else at the moment.
@kyleforrester87 well, you could assault merchant ships, get rid of sentinels.... EXplore the planet together...
@arnoldlayne83 Yeah I guess, maybe I'm not imaginative enough
Yes, we all know that Sean has gone on the record and said there is multiplayer, but that was the first thing I notice in the PSN Store description: it's listed as 1 Player. What's odd though is the omission of the Network identifier, which is tagged on a game that uses online features - in the case NMS's mechanic of uploading discoveries. Maybe it's a typo, maybe two players can't run into each other, whatever the case Hello Games should really just cough it up.
Someone dun goofed up!
It would be quite a bizarre coincidence if it was a random error. A game that was touted repeatedly as having online features even though it really doesn't. A sticker continuing this claim. If this was a game that was never meant to have any kind of online, like Firewatch, then it'd be easy to believe it was a mistake. This is directly in line with the misinformation we've been given for a long time.
They were probably hoping to get away with the planet and creature naming element being considered as an online feature but the backlash has shown that's a bad assumption.
On a personal level it doesn't matter to me because that wasn't part of what drew me to the game. They did still lie and I've heard this info about the server simply being a database for names from several different sources. Apparently the type of server is not one that deals with online play as we understand it. It's as simple as that. It's like saying you're going to fly across the Atlantic on a car, the type of machine makes that clearly untrue.
"attempt to conceal misleading communication" - for sure. It`s sony after all...
@Matroska
exactly...
weird... I've been following No Man's Sky since announced. I never take any statement that led me to think it's a multiplayer game... It's always a single player experience with online server for leaderboard & data repository, no?
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