It's no secret that No Man's Sky has come a long, long way since it launched back in 2016. Developer Hello Games knuckled down and put its all into improving the game over the last few years, and now the title's the best that it's ever been. It took some time, but we got there in the end.
Unfortunately, No Man's Sky isn't the most recent high profile title to release in such a decidedly rough state. Both last year's Fallout 76 and this year's ANTHEM have been torn to shreds by media and players alike, and Hello Games founder Sean Murray has offered some advice based on personal experience.
"We went about two years without talking to press at all, and we went about three months without saying anything to the community either. That was really hard. I sat down so many times and wrote the perfect blog post that was going to explain everything about the game's development, and the road map going ahead. But I could see that it didn't hold credibility with regards to where we were at," Murray explained during a recent panel at Develop 2019.
"There have been a number of games that have since come out, had a polarising launch, and that explosive mix of loads of people playing it but also problems. And I can see EA, Microsoft, or Bethesda try to placate players by just talking to them, but for right or wrong, it just doesn't really work," Murray continued. "You see this all the time when a big publisher will talk to the community and try to solve the problem and then get embroiled, taking up more and more of its head space."
In other words, Murray reckons that when everyone's out for blood, the best thing to do is shut up and get to work on improving your game. "Talking about features when a game's already out isn't that credible or interesting," Murray told GamesRadar. "Your actions are so much more important than what you say."
It's one heck of a juicy quote, and we definitely think that Murray's got a point. Fallout 76 can announce all the battle royale modes that it wants, but it'll never get a second chance at winning people over right from the start. The best thing that it, and most certainly ANTHEM, can do, is work tirelessly to improve themselves and give players a genuine reason to believe that the future is much brighter.
Do you agree with Murray? Should games like Fallout 76 and ANTHEM take note of how No Man's Sky righted its wrongs? Offer some hope in the comments section below.
[source gamesradar.com]
Comments 23
The Prb With Anthem Is That Its Developer is Owned by EA Who Have Absolutely No Problem Shuting Them Down Before They Can Get To That Point
I've been tempted by a cheap copy of Anthem a few times now, but hasn't its playing population shrunk down to bugger all now? I mean, I'm all for the game getting better, but from what I've seen it just seems like a lost cause now. Anthem and Fallout rely on a repeat, online gaming presence. NMS doesn't.
@AhabSpampurse Yeah I think on a fundamental level, Fallout 76 and ANTHEM are more difficult to improve than No Man's Sky was. That's not to take anything away from the work Hello Games did, but you know what I mean.
You heard the Murray master. Less yappin', more action.
While I tend to agree, I would say while Hello Games actions have been commendable I suspect they've ultimately done very little to bring back the majority of the original players.
Frankly, a lot of the original players didn't really know what they were getting themselves in for anyway - lots of people claiming it's procedural generation would result in it being "the only game they'd ever need" we're always in for a disappointment, even if it launched with a lot of the features it now has.
But anyway, the point is, yes the reputation of the developer can be salvaged, but these games need to get it right from the get go to retain a player base.
However, there are extreme examples, such as FF14's complete relaunch, which is probably the only way to go when the sh*ts really hit the fan.
Yes I agree. Also I love how people/some youtuber only talking/reporting about the “not talking to press and fan” bit and not the “work hard behind the scene to improve the game” bit 😕
@kyleforrester87 Hello games should allow reviewers to review the game before launch date rather than withholding the review copy / only gave reviewers copy at release date.
It is a good point but I would say that as a largely single player game, all No Mans Sky was missing was a lot of promised content. It now has that and it was enough to give a big launch for XB1 and a enough for people like me to give it a shot. A live community game like Anthem will need a player base to make it attractive and it will have to fight hard to get it.
The difference between No Man Sky and both Anthem and Fallout 76 is that No Man Sky is done.by an Indie company, they don't have EA or Bethesda breathing down their necks.
The problem that if the game isn't a success at launch big stockholder companies like EA and Bethesda they are so quick to write them off as failures. They don't give the devs a chance to fix the game or adjust it due to the players feedback before pulling them off the dev team for another project. Even if they want to go back and fix things they often arent allowed too.
Indie studios have that luxary though because they don't have to deal with stockholders who just want them to pump out game after game.
Why can't they do both? Is there only one person talking and making the game?
I think in Sean's case, I would definitely agree with him... Less talking Sean, more work. :3
Smart dude. At first I thought this article was about finally getting a date for No Man's Sky Beyond...
Talk is cheap. Deliver. Don’t make outlandish claims before a game is released and don’t show footage that isn’t representative of what the game will look like and spend at least an hour understanding what your fans and gamers want and don’t go for low hanging fruit of lootboxes and VC.
Or hire me and I’ll steer you right.
Say nothing? So no-one knows you're even improving the game and will likely trade it in? Weird.
Hes right. Press or gamers, talk will always get spinned in one way or another. It's all about everyone pushing their agenda or frustration without listening much nowadays.
Best to listen to feedback and take all on board.
"The best thing that it, and most certainly ANTHEM, can do, is work tirelessly to improve themselves and give players a genuine reason to believe that the future is much brighter."
I highly disagree with this statement. There are times when it's just best to walk away. Imagine being part of the skeleton crew trying to fix one of these broken games while the rest of the studio has moved on to other projects. How inspired would you be to come up with interesting new content for a dwindled player base that you know will generate zero new revenue? The "live service" model is fundamentally flawed, at least insofar as these types of games are concerned, and I think for many of them it's just time to admit failure and commit to doing better next time.
@McJagger It was never intended to be a realistic statement, just idealistic. In an ideal world ANTHEM would already be a great game — the second best option is to now make it into a great game. But again, idealistic. What's probably going to happen is that it'll continue to drift away into the void and then its eventual cancellation will come as a shock to absolutely no one.
Actions speak louder than words.
I didn’t really think of it before, but Hello Games seems like it would be a perfect acquisition for Sony as a first-party studio.
Say what you like about Murray, but the guy is a special developer, and No Man’s Sky in its current state is a pretty impressive creation.
He shows the kind of insight a studio needs to stay successful, and obviously they have done a great job working on No Man’s Sky post-launch. The studio is clearly talented.
@Tasuki But wasn’t No Man’s Sky published in large part by Sony? They kinda did have a large publisher with financial interest behind them. The difference in my opinion is that Sony is a far better publisher to work with than the ones you mentioned. That seems to be what many devs say; that Sony is a pleasure to work with.
Of course if you release a half a game and that's 'buggy', the best thing to do is put all your effort into polishing that game and making the rest of it too.
However this is OK if you only have the 1 game and also concentrating on porting it to other devices but this is EA and Bethesda - both of whom will be pushing the developers to make their next game(s), pushing them to hit deadlines etc. Bioware with another Dragon Age and Bethesda with some new chapters in their ESO, as well as the upcomung Starfield and ES6 games.
I doubt they will be given the time or resources to turn things around and Bioware basically abandoned ME:A when sales weren't great to focus on Anthem and none of us would be surprised if they were abandoning Anthem to focus on Dragon Age. Personally Anthem has potential but I can see that being left to rot and Fallout 76 may also be on its last legs (not sure if the NPC thing has helped or too little too late) which may force the Devs to abandon it instead of knuckling down and pushing through.
Hello Games had the opportunity to knuckle down as they were also focussed on the port to Xbox too. I don't believe they had some pushy corporation that wants the next game to release in a few years, ready or not, to hit the right financial window for their shareholders...
Don't forget Evolution Studios and Drive Club they did so much to turn Drive Club around and Sony closed them down. I have always felt more of the problem for them was on PS4 server side.I would have no problem buying another Hello Games or Evolution Studios game.
@BAMozzy You bring up good points that only make me want to continually stay away from Bioware and Bethesda until things start to turn around; that they will not support their games adequately enough post-launch due to future contract obligations.
@deepspace5d Its not just the obligation to their next project, you also have EA and Bethesda deeming those games financially dead. By that I mean that there isn't a strong enough user base to warrant investing more time and effort to bring users - both new and old into the game to sell content to pay for the new and improved experience.
If there were the users , you can bet that EA and Bethesda would continue to support those games, invest in putting the errors right and adding new content to flesh out the game regardless of the fact that new games are likely to be in development.
Its the fact that they are dying (if not dead) that will stop the developers being given the time and support to knuckle down and put things right like Hello Games were. Its all well and good Hello Games stating that they, given time have turned things around for NMS, but I can't see EA and Bethesda giving their development teams the time to repair their damaged games.
@ShogunRok oh yeah 100%; HG completely pulled the lead out and cracked on. And that clearly shows in the product. I'll be REALLY surprised if either Fallout or Anthem pull it back though, given their dwindling populations. The constraints they're under are very different, and they have my sympathies.
I think a huge part of the goodwill towards Hello Games isn't just that they knuckled down and delivered what some people thought they'd be getting at launch; but it's all the content and features that weren't even mentioned at all on top of that.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...