No Man's Sky was poised to be one of the biggest releases of the year.
Instead, the game disappointed the majority of players when it released in August. More than a few players felt misled and lied to after numerous features said to be in the game were nowhere to be found in the final product.
Flash forward to now, and not only does No Man's Sky sport a "Mostly Negative" user review score on Steam, but it is actually under investigation in the UK for false advertising. Hello Games and studio head Sean Murray have been silent on the backlash facing the game, though the team continues to release performance updates that have largely eliminated many of No Man's Sky's technical issues. That silence, however, may at long last be broken next month.
Video game journalist Geoff Keighley reserved the last few minutes in the premiere episode of LIVE With YouTube Gaming for the subject of No Man's Sky, specifically what went wrong with the heavily anticipated game. Keighley says he's largely been silent on the game, in part because he feels like he could be to blame to some extent for its sky-high expectations.
After a segment discussing everything from the No Man's Sky's reveal to how Murray wasn't honest with fans, Keighley says Murray is open to appearing on LIVE With YouTube Gaming sometime in October to discuss what happened.
Whether or not Murray does appear on the show remains to be seen, but much of what Keighley discussed during the segment is worth listening to for those who can't help but be fascinated by No Man's Sky's rapid descent into infamy. The segment begins at about the 1:48:00 mark.
It was at Keighley's VGX Award Show in 2014 where No Man's Sky made its debut, and Keighley wonders if perhaps giving Murray and Hello Games such a large stage for their indie game was the right move. Keighley says following the game's reveal he could tell that the indie game studio had the weight of the world on its shoulders.
"I've fretted over the years, maybe the platform we gave him was too big, and created this black hole he couldn't pull himself out of," Keighley says. "But no matter what, you have to be honest with your fans. You can't lie. And Sean wanted to preserve the promise and mystery of the game so much he started to disrespect his audience."
Rather than being open with fans, Keighley says Murray couldn't bring himself to "rip off the band-aid" and reveal what exactly was and wasn't in the game. He goes on to say that Murray didn't want Keighley around the team in the years following the reveal because he perceived Keighley as being "too negative" about No Man's Sky. That's because Keighley took issue with the decision that No Man's Sky would be a $60 game, instead of a cheaper, Early Access title that could be improved over time.
It's not that No Man's Sky is a bad game, Keighley says during the show, but rather that it's unfinished (something that wouldn't be an issue had the game released in Early Access as Keighley recommended). Murray dreamed big but in the end the small team simply couldn't deliver.
Here's hoping Murray will indeed appear on Keighley's show in the future and provide some answers. In the meantime, fans will still be left wondering what went wrong.
